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UK Hacker loses Extradition Case

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wed May 10, 2006 12:48 PM
from the stylish-orange-jumpsuit dept.
Government The Courts Security News
SnakeOil Steve writes to tell us that Gary McKinnon, the alleged hacker who broke into Army, Air Force, Navy, and NASA systems, has just lost his extradition case. From the article: "'My intention was never to disrupt security. The fact that I logged on and there were no passwords means that there was no security,' McKinnon said, outside the hearing at London's Bow Street Magistrates Court. 'I was looking for UFOs.'"
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story

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[+] Slashback: Quinn, InfoCards, McKinnon 103 comments
Slashback tonight brings some corrections, clarifications, and updates to previous Slashdot stories, including The Boston Globe's Ombudsman speaks on Peter Quinn story, Microsoft continues to push their password-less approach to web browsing, Gary McKinnon extradition reopened, and more news on the organic car fuel front -- Read on for details.
[+] IT: 'UK Hackers' Condemn McKinnon? 214 comments
An anonymous reader writes "Whitedust has some interesting commentary on this BBC article which claims that 'UK hackers' have condemned Gary Mckinnon's trial. From the article: 'Another example of some truly awful and misinformed mainstream tech reporting here. The article claims that UK hackers are almost all in support of Mr Mckinnon when in truth as we all know the entire tech community has agreed that Mr Mckinnon is not only an idiot but a deluded attention seeker.'"
[+] Politics: UK Gives Go-Ahead to Gary McKinnon Extradition 309 comments
robzster1977 writes "Judges in the UK have given the go-ahead to the extradition of UK hacker Gary McKinnon. McKinnon is accused of breaking into US Navy, Army and Department of Defense computers in 2001 and 2002." From the article: "On 4 July the secretary of state signed an order for Mr McKinnon's extradition to the United States for charges connected with computer hacking. Mr McKinnon had exercised his right to submit representations against return but the secretary of state did not consider the issues raised availed Mr McKinnon."
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  • Nice Try (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MBCook (132727) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Wednesday May 10 2006, @12:51PM (#15302494) Homepage
    I was just looking in that guy's house for a nice new TV. It wasn't breaking in because he left the door open.

    You want to guess how well that flies? I agree it is stupid that there were no passwords on the system, but just like a yard without a fence, the fact the fence is there does not imply permission to run around there and dig up the flowers.

    And it's the military. You really think you can poke around in the military's systems without them coming after you?

    • Re:Nice Try (Score:5, Insightful)

      by FireFury03 (653718) <slashdotNO@SPAMnexusuk.org> on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:03PM (#15302587) Homepage
      I agree it is stupid that there were no passwords on the system, but just like a yard without a fence, the fact the fence is there does not imply permission to run around there and dig up the flowers.

      What constitutes "permission" to access unpassworded network services? Do you need written permission? If so I guess everyone who accesses public web servers is guilty of cracking them since they didn't get written permission from the server owners.

      It may sound silly, but there really isn't a lot of difference between a public unpassworded service and a private service that's been left unpassworded on a public network. It's certainly impossible to tell if it's legitimately public before connecting to it and there's no guarantee you can tell that it's not supposed to be public once you have connected.

      Lets say you connect to a web server - how are you to know if that's a public web site or a private company's intranet site that they didn't bother to password protect?

        • Re:Nice Try (NOT!) (Score:4, Insightful)

          by FireFury03 (653718) <slashdotNO@SPAMnexusuk.org> on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:38PM (#15302877) Homepage
          Anybody who thinks that it's OK to go poking around obviously non-public military sites

          I'm afraid I don't know the specific details of the case - was he accessing web sites? Were they obviously non-public? How could he have found out that they were obviously non-public before accessing them (and thus being branded a cracker)?

          if you're finding passwords and deployment details, you can be pretty sure it's not supposed to be public

          If you've found passwords and deployment details then you have already accessed the server and thus liable to be prosecuted as a cracker. Please explain how one would find out _before_ potentially breaking the law that they shouldn't proceed any further.

          In fact, if he wanted to do the right thing, he should have emailed a security contact for the site and notified him/her about the problem.

          Emailing them saying "hey, I just accessed all your confidential data" doesn't seem like a good way of avoiding prosecution does it?

          It _could_ also be argued that since these were military secrets, knowing them turns him into a target and so the best way of remaining safe is to keep very quiet and hope noone notices.

        • Re:Nice Try (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Schraegstrichpunkt (931443) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @02:14PM (#15303193) Homepage
          Replace "home" with "store" or other place of business. Homes are treated specially under the law (at least in some jurisdictions) precisely because they are special. Computers providing services on a public network are hardly akin to private dwellings.

          What I'd like to know is, with all this talk about "security" and "9/11" and crap, why is it that the military can be -- even arguably -- accidentally cracked? What if the alleged "hacker" wasn't from a friendly country?

          I don't care how good this "hacker" guy was. Yes, perhaps he should be punished, but if he was able to get at systems that are critical to national security at all, regardless of the means he used, then clearly someone in the military isn't doing his job. I think the people in charge in the military, who have a duty (unlike this UK civilian) to safeguard the American public, should be punished more severely.

          • Yes, I want to know what the fuck our DEFENSE NETWORKS are doing CONNECTED TO THE FUCKING INTERNET in the first place.

    • I was just looking in that guy's house for a nice new TV. It wasn't breaking in because he left the door open. You want to guess how well that flies?

      Actually, in the US, it flies pretty well. You're still trespassing, but if you break into a locked house, then you're breaking and entering. Physical property law reflects the very real difference, why doesn't it apply here?

      Also, "looking for a TV" is a prelude to theft. Looking for UFO evidence on someone's computer is a prelude to copyright infrin

    • Re:Nice Try (Score:5, Insightful)

      by finkployd (12902) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:15PM (#15302688) Homepage
      was just looking in that guy's house for a nice new TV. It wasn't breaking in because he left the door open.


      What a horrible, totally irrelevant, and not remotely applicable analogy.

      I suppose you obtained permission from every contributor (read: copyright holder) on slashdot.org before you broke into port 80 and pirated all of this text and graphics to your computer, correct?

      I mean, just because there is not a lock on the door, what makes you think you can come in head and read everything......hey wait, did you POST data to this server too? Holy crap! Vandalism! That is just like spray painting on the inside of someone's house that you broke into! You are in for it now.

      Finkployd
      • I suppose you obtained permission from every contributor (read: copyright holder) on slashdot.org before you broke into port 80 and pirated all of this text and graphics to your computer, correct?

        Give me a break. This guy spent at least a year (2/01 to 3/02) hacking into U.S. Government computer systems, he's 40 years old, and he's more than competent with computers. He knew exactly what he's doing, and he knows what he's doing when he obfuscates the issue by saying that he logged into systems that did
    • just like a yard without a fence, the fact the fence is there does not imply permission to run around there and dig up the flowers.

      True, but I would assume that any government building with an unlocked doors during 'normal business hours' would be fair game to walk go in to. This was a publicly accessible server out in an area (the Internet) where the assumption is that everything not locked down is accessible.

    • Re:Nice Try (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dwandy (907337) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:26PM (#15302770) Homepage Journal
      I agree it is stupid that there were no passwords on the system, but just like a yard without a fence, the fact the fence is there does not imply permission to run around there and dig up the flowers.
      It's not quite so simple.
      The reason you know that a yard without a fence is still private property is because there is social history - first around property, and more recently around 'suburb property'. So now we have an acceptance of what is private and what is not, even if it's not marked.
      But, if you are in the middle of nowhere, and crossed no fence and passed no sign, you could be under the impression that you're still on public property. While you may still be trespassing, no judge is going to find you guilty. The rightful owner can certainly ask you to leave, but charges are never going to stick.
      So, by the same token, any computer system that has no password could easily be assumed to be open to the public.

      I'm strongly against computer owners who take no steps to mark the territory as private who then sue and/or lay charges. Anything I can access using a typical browser or ssh/telnet/ftp/whatever client is public property. As soon as it prompts me for a password, or even displays a notification that this is private, then anything beyond that is unauthorised access.

      Note that shopping centers are private property, and yet we assume we can enter and move about freely. Sure, they can ask us to leave, but we work under the assumption that since the door is open, we are free to enter.
      Once inside, there are often doors that are either locked or marked for no entry, and again, we assume that these areas are off-limits, but the rest of the area is 'public' (of course, not in the legal sense)
      So, if from my computer I can access a remote computer belonging to the US Army, am I breaking the law?
      Those who immediately say 'yes' forget that the US Army [army.mil] has a very public HTTP server which anyone can access freely.

      So now the questions are (much more correctly) how does one tell whether one is on 'private property' out in the wilderness? Because that is what the internet is - a giant otherwise unmarked wilderness. Sure, parts of it look like the burbs with the on-line shopping and home-pages, but there's a whole host of other computers out there performing tasks, responding to credit, time, stocks quote, system update and various other queries. Which of those is public? Which is private?
      It's only by putting up signs and locks that people can know which computers are public and which are not ... in my opinion the onus starts with the computers owner. If you attach a computer to the public network (aka the internet) and you fail to take a minimum of steps to state that this computer is private, than you should have no recourse if someone accesses it without your expressed permission.

    • Actually, there is no presumption of privacy without protecting yourself. Lets say that you don't have a fence around your yard; whatever happens to persons in that yard is therefore your responsibility, because there is no restriction to trespassing. If the person destroys your property, they are liable. Conversely, if they slip on your front doorstep and break their neck, you are liable because they are technically not trespassing. No harm, no foul on either party. Why should computer systems be any
      • "Well, I can call the guy whatever I want and insult his wife and mother cause it's the Intarweb."

        I can do that legally in real life, too.

        "Well, I'm not really stealing when I pirate all these MP3s and movies. Information wants to be free."

        It isn't stealing, it's copyright infringement. Big difference. I'm not saying it's right, but it isn't stealing. And with current laws, I'd probably be better off if I were caught stealing a CD from a store, than if I were caught sharing MP3s online.

          • So if you steal a CD from walmart it's not actually stealing? I think there's a flaw in that train of thought.

            Don't be a dumbass. Theft of a physical object is stealing. Copying a CD is not.

            If you don't own the work in the first place, then it's copyright infringement AND stealing.

            Cite please. It's one or the other, but not both.

          • Copyright infringement lacks one very important part of stealing. The part where you deprive the rightful owner of the stolen good or its use.

            When you go into Walmart and pick up a CD without the intent to hand Walmart the required compensation, you deprive Walmart of the ability to sell that CD to someone. When you download music, most likely even not from the manufacturer but someone else who, in turn, also does not necessarily have the required rights to offer you this item, how do you take away the manu

            • Re:Nice Try (Score:5, Insightful)

              by rwven (663186) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @04:20PM (#15304207) Homepage
              Per answers.com dictionary:

              Stealing: The act of taking feloniously the personal property of another without his consent and knowledge; theft; larceny.
              http://www.answers.com/stealing [answers.com]

              Steal: To take (the property of another) without right or permission.
              http://www.answers.com/steal [answers.com]

              I'm sorry but I see nothing about deprivation. You're welcome to look at the other definitions at those links and you'll see the same.

              If you get your car worked on and then drive off without paying...that's stealing. You didn't actually take a physical object from that person though.
        • I don't think anyone questions that what the guy did was wrong. The question is, should he face extradition to the US and a possible 70 year jail sentance,

          You'll probably get modded for that. Of course how unjust it would be for that 70 year sentence. Oh my god - the US is so evil. 70 YEARS!

          Except it's a max of 5 years. Which I would say is lenient for stealing 950 passwords from military computers. He should get 10 years tacked on for the crime of being a fucking idiot.

          • Re:Nice Try (Score:3, Interesting)

            by Fred_A (10934)
            It's still not very clear why he ought to be extradited though.

            Does the US ever ship anyone overseas for trial ?

            • Re:Nice Try (Score:3, Insightful)

              by ergo98 (9391)
              It's still not very clear why he ought to be extradited though.

              He committed a crime against resources not only in another country, but of another country's government. If you mail a bomb to the president of another country, that country will ask for you to be sent over -- even though you began the crime in your country.

              Does the US ever ship anyone overseas for trial ?

              That's why the UK is extraditing him -- they have a reciprocal extradition treaty. If they refuse to, then the next time they want a cyberhack

              • Bull (Score:5, Informative)

                by weierstrass (669421) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @03:11PM (#15303678) Homepage Journal
                >That's why the UK is extraditing him -- they have a reciprocal extradition treaty.

                No, they have an almost unprecedented asymmetric extradition treaty.
                The Extradition Act 2003 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. Among its provisions, it removes the requirement on the US to provide prima facie evidence when requesting the extradition of people from the UK, but maintains the requirement on the UK to provide such evidence to the US in the reverse situation.
                (Wikipedia) [wikipedia.org]

                This is the reason for the opposition to Gary's extradition, and that of the NatWest Three, and so on. The UK basically handed a huge chunk of sovereignty right over to the Americans, basically saying "If you want a British citizen, you can have him bound hand and foot."

            • Re:Nice Try (Score:4, Informative)

              by Ironsides (739422) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:39PM (#15302880) Homepage Journal
              Does the US ever ship anyone overseas for trial ?

              Yes. http://seoul.usembassy.gov/december_24_2002.html [usembassy.gov]
        • Why not ship him off to Russia to face their computer laws? Its not pick and choose... he broke into a US military computer, he needs to face US law. It was not the UK that was harmed by his actions, it was the US.

          • Not to derail, but the definition of "theft" does include "ideas" (Webster's Unabridged, 2001 if you need a source), which would indicate that intellectual property like song lyrics can indeed be stolen.

            And the legal definition does not. Movies are not ideas, they are copyrighted works.

  • Title is not quite true (Score:4, Informative)

    by mustafap (452510) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @12:52PM (#15302504)

    The judgement opens up the option for his extradition.

    The decision is now with our Home Secretary.

    • Re:Title is not quite true (Score:5, Insightful)

      by purple_cobra (848685) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:13PM (#15302668)
      Sadly, Reid will happily extradite him. Bush will *tell* Blair, and Reid would never think of opposing The Anointed One.
      Much as I think McKinnon is an idiot he should be tried and, if found guilty, punished in the UK: he stands some tiny chance of a fair trial here, along with a proportionate sentence. All that crap about causing so much damage to a network that it "took more than a month to repair" (quote taken from the BBC News story) has the strong smell of bullshit. I suspect this is more concerned with the US military being shown, once again, to be incompetent and entirely incapable of securing anything than with the alleged damage this plonker caused.
      Shame he didn't want anything from our own MoD: if he'd hung around long enough I'm sure he could have picked-up one of the many laptops they've left lying around over the years.

      • Re:Title is not quite true (Score:4, Funny)

        by mpcooke3 (306161) * on Wednesday May 10 2006, @04:35PM (#15304319) Homepage
        "took more than a month to repair" (quote taken from the BBC News story) has the strong smell of bullshit

        They probably included the time it took to set up that security system called "passwords". so as to make sure no other leet hackers could break in.
        • Why should he be tried in a country where the crime did not take place?
          The locus of the crime is somewhat debatable. It may be a matter of legal construction that the crime, if any, took place where the server was located. But its just as viable to say that the crime, if any, took place where the alleged criminal was located when he allegedly committed the crime, which, best as I know, was the United Kingdom.
  • I'm sure as soon as he attempted the connection or got logged on that there was a welcome message that said "unauthorized activity prohibited" or something to that effect. How he didn't see this coming I will probably never understand.
    • Actually I work for the DoD and we just got a new regulation on displaying banners on connection, it is entirely possible there was no banner at the time of the 'break in'.

  • Ouch (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Umbral Blot (737704)
    From the article "McKinnon faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine." That has gotta hurt. The article also claims that his activities shut down the systems for a week. If that is true he might deserve this punishment, but I find it somewhat hard to believe that the military's computers were actually down for that long. Couldn't they just have done a clean boot?

    • Re:Ouch (Score:5, Informative)

      by AuMatar (183847) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:19PM (#15302724)
      The system was comprimised. You don't just reboot them- you need to reimage the system to make sure nothing was left behind by the intruder. For a military system, they probably did a forensic search to see what he had access to and what information may have been comprimised. That takes time.

  • I really hope... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by joe 155 (937621) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:01PM (#15302568) Journal
    that the Home Secretary does not let this one go forward... as someone mentioned previously in a discussion a few days ago; we all break laws in countries which we're not in, that's ok, we shouldn't be able to be prosectued for it (I know he also broke UK law - but he should only be prosecuted under that). How would Bush feel if someone tried to prosectue an American for saying that Iran's leadership was being foolish and that they are wrong - that's illegal in Iran - where's the extradition to Iran - you can't have it both ways

    • Re:I really hope... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Mike Buddha (10734) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:14PM (#15302677)
      How would Bush feel if someone tried to prosectue an American for saying that Iran's leadership was being foolish and that they are wrong - that's illegal in Iran - where's the extradition to Iran - you can't have it both ways

      Your understanding of International Law is woefully inadequate/misinformed. The US has extradition treaties with countries they determine are lawful, like the UK. The US does not consider Iran a country that would respect American Law, and therefore have not agreed to an extradition treaty with them. Yes, in fact you can have it both ways.

      If you'd checked, you'd know that in fact Iran has in the past issued warrants calling for the arrest of foreign citizens. Those warrants carry no weight outside of Iran and the countries (if any) that have extradition treaties with it.

      • Re:I really hope... (Score:5, Informative)

        by pla (258480) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:51PM (#15303007) Journal
        Your understanding of International Law is woefully inadequate/misinformed.

        And yours appears woefully naive. International law means "The US gets what it wants, everyone else can go pound sand".

        Not saying I consider it right, just callin' it as I see it.



        The US has extradition treaties with countries they determine are lawful, like the UK.

        Or, say, Italy? Oh, but we just can't let them have 22 CIA operatives charged with kidnapping and torture on Italian soil.

        Or Venezuela, seeking the extradition of a KNOWN terrorist the US has decided to harbor, because he only terrorized Cuba? How well would that fly if the UK responded to the US request "Oh, well, we'd love to, and normally we disapprove of cracking military computers, but well, he only attacked the US, not anyone that matters"?

        Or Spain, currently seeking the extradition of three US soldiers for the murder of a Spanish reporter?

        Or India, who currently wants Warren Andersen (former CEO of Union Carbide) for that little Bhopal mess?

        I could go on.


        So... Yeah. International law... Whatever helps you sleep.

        • Re:I really hope... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Jim_Callahan (831353) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @02:16PM (#15303211)
          As someone else in the thread has noted, a lot of the US extradition treaties are one-way (i.e. extradition in the other guy-> US direction was traded for something other than the reciprocal right). This means that the US can demand extradition of a lot of foreign citizens while those people's countries can't do the same to us. This isn't our fault necessarily, it's what both parties agreed to whenever the treaty was signed.

          Also, extradition generally has to be approved by the country doing the booting, so it's hardly a level of bullying beyone the normal bullying associated with any form of politics. There are doubtless times when countries denied the US the right to prosecute their citizens: in this case, they didn't, because they agree that the man is a criminal and know that nothing worse would happen to him under U.S. law than under their own law.
          • This means that the US can demand extradition of a lot of foreign citizens while those people's countries can't do the same to us. This isn't our fault necessarily, it's what both parties agreed to whenever the treaty was signed.

            Come again? Whose fault is it then?

            I know the one-way extradition treaty you have with Norway is bugging the hell out of us, BUT IF WE GO AGAINST YOUR BLOODY ADMINISTRATION IN ***ANYTHING*** WE'LL LOOSE ***ALL*** SUPPORT FROM YOU RIGHT AWAY SO WE'RE PRETTY MUCH STUCK WITH WHATE

    • as someone mentioned previously in a discussion a few days ago; we all break laws in countries which we're not in, that's ok, we shouldn't be able to be prosectued for it (I know he also broke UK law - but he should only be prosecuted under that).

      I really hope that's not some kind of excuse for his behavior. Just because he was in the UK and broke a US law doesn't give him the opportunity to walk off into the sunset. He needs to face the music; he willfully violated US law. Reverse the situation -- if he

    • all break laws in countries which we're not in, that's ok,

      Thing is, this guy wasn't hacking a UK server, he was hacking a US server, on US soil.

      If he was stealing in the UK, he shouldn't be charged with theft in the US, but as it stands the crime was really committed on US soil.

      I'd be more sympathetic to your argument if the server was on non-US soil. Then it'd be arguable that he didn't commit any crimes against the US, and shouldn't be tried in the US.

  • Spock: Insufficient facts always invite danger (Score:4, Funny)

    by digitaldc (879047) * on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:04PM (#15302597)
    "I was looking for UFOs."

    Judging by the look on his face [nwsource.com]could he be one of them? [google.com]
    Of course he lost the Extradition case, we can't even transport to Mars let alone Alpha Centauri.
    This whole mess could have been avoided if he had only tuned in regularly to the History Channel. [historychannel.com]

  • A couple of points (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:07PM (#15302617)
    Given the US track record on treatment of detainees, torture, imprisonment without trial and so on I am very suprised and disappointed that any government would willingly allow their citizens to be taken into custody in the US. Here in the UK we have an issue with "illegal imigrants" who remain in this country because on arrival they plead persecution and their lawyers find it easy to block their deportation back to a repressive regime. By the same standards the USA is clearly a repressive regime.

    Also, I've heard this story from all sorts of sides and opinions ranging from "He's a harmless wannabe cracker who just walked into unsecured .mil sites looking for UFO information and is now being persecuted by overzealous 'security' gimps keen to make an example of someone (presumably because they never catch any real intruders who are far too smart)" all the way to "He's a publicity seeking prick who set this whole thing up to get busted as some kind of bid for fame"
    Whatever the outcome I'd like to see the same standards applied to SONY as to this kid. If he goes down then I want to see SONY programmers arrested and deported to the UK to face multiple criminal charges because installing rootkits is an offence under the Computer Misuse Act in this country.

    With all these double standards I can't see people retaining any repect for justice or the law. Once governments undermine the law with such blatent corruption of principles it's a one way ticket down to social disintegration.
     

  • Hacker loses Extradition Case? (Score:3, Funny)

    by fak3r (917687) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:09PM (#15302637) Homepage
    Wow, that's gotta suck, hope he finds it soon! Anyone know what he had in that case?

  • Well, ok maybe (Score:5, Insightful)

    by finkployd (12902) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:10PM (#15302649) Homepage
    Despite being batshit insane, he might have a point with this:

    "The fact that I logged on and there were no passwords means that there was no security"

    There needs to probably be some middle ground legally regarding what is and is not secure. It makes no sense that, say, accessing a windows share drive (or AFS cell if you like real network filesystems) out there on the internet with no passwords, no encryption, no attempt at all at security should be legally considered breaking and entering or whatever non-applicable metaphor the courts have wedged into computer case law. Nor should accessing an unprotected wireless connection be considered this, since many OSes will do that without asking.

    One the flip side, we cannot go so far as to say that just because someone can break security, it was not really there... "You honor, if he didn't want me using his wireless connection, he shouldn't have only used WEP and MAC restrictions. I mean seriously, it was trivial to get his WEP key and change my MAC address to one of the allowed ones".

    As much as I hate to say this, there needs to be SOME standard of security to apply to something before breaking it can be considered a crime. We run into this with the DMCA where ROT13 is a perfectly legit encryption algorithm in the eyes of the law. Maybe NIST approved cyphers or something like that should be the standard. It is just silly to leave something wide open then act all surprised and litigious when someone checks it out.

    And before anyone makes a brain dead "leaving my house open does not give you the right to come in and snoop around" analogy, let's be clear that by virtue of having something published on the internet, you are inviting people to take a look. There is no accurate and meaningful real world analogy for computer network security so keep your unlocked cars, unattended briefcases, and snail mail stories to yourself. There are many services you can log into without a password (think anon FTP, demo systems, or even some telnet/ssh BBSes), so if you don't want people thinking they can log in and look around, try setting a password. Sheesh

    Finkployd

        • Open door analogy (Score:5, Insightful)

          by chihowa (366380) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @02:05PM (#15303114)
          As you've said, the open door analogy isn't the best here, but it can be improved a little bit. A publicly accessible computer system on the internet is similar to a unlocked door in a business district. If it doesn't say 'Employees Only' or isn't locked (compare to requiring a password or announcing that permission to access is restricted), then you won't be charged with tresspassing for opening the door and checking out what's inside. Of course you can't take (or break) anything, but you can't do that in any 'open to the public' place either.

  • McKinnon didn't hack anything (Score:5, Insightful)

    by t35t0r (751958) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @01:14PM (#15302675)
    I've said this on digg and i'll say it here again, he didn't hack anything. In his interviews it was said that the systems were already compromised and were being used by people from eastern european countries. I commend him for seeking the truth but not for going about it idiotically. In any case he doesn't deserve anything more than a few months in jail (if that even, better in a halfway house if there are such things in the UK), probation, and community service.

    This has gotten way out of proportion. He didn't even do anything to damage US operations nor was this even his intent, he's not a terrorist and had no malicious intent. I would rather make sure those idiotic sysadmins never worked in IT for the rest of their lives since they left administrator passwords open! Freakin morons.

  • A country that extradites its own citizens ... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Ihlosi (895663) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @03:24PM (#15303767)
    ... should consider itself a vassal.

    • Re:A country that extradites its own citizens ... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by houghi (78078) on Wednesday May 10 2006, @05:54PM (#15304785) Homepage
      So all I have to do is commit a crime in a neigbouring country and get back before I get cought?

      In Brussels not so long ago a young man was killed. The (aledged) killer went back to Poland where he is from to hide. So you say that the Belgians should just sit and do nothing?

      A country that does not extradites its own citizens is guilty of obstruction of the law, at least.
    • Well, that is a good point. What if I reply by saying, I went in your house BECAUSE the door was opened and wanted to make sure you were okay? Now as a defense I suppose I would be leaving a note saying, "hey wanted to make sure you were not hurt and you left your door open."

      I dunno. What exactly did he break into? Did he take anything with him? Is there a loss - monetary, security - directly attributed to this action?

      Seems kind of far-fetched to me.
    • This does feel other-worldly to me. You would think that the US would be too embarassed to admit that 'the British loon looking for UFOs' was able to break into a 'valuable' system that lacked passwords. The real prosecution should be of the people in charge of security here in the US. After all, there are people that are actually trying to do harm to the US, its military and its information systems. If the loon looking for aliens can break in, why do we think that a real enemy of the state could not.

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