Security Bullet In
Communiques from the security front, sir
Tuesday 24 April 2007, 6:03 PM
McKinnon to appear at Infosec
Gary McKinnon has been confirmed to appear on the hackers' panel at Infosec.
McKinnon, who is likely to be extradicted to the US to face charges of hacking US government computers, will face IT security professionals on Friday.
You'd expect him to be in for a rough time, but the portents are that he will get a fairly sympathetic reaction. In a poll of Infosec attendees, 75 percent said he should not be extradicted to the US.
McKinnon claims to have been looking for evidence of UFOs when he accessed the military files.
PreviousComments on this post
I'm not sure of the whole story here. If it was an accident, he should not be extradited to the US. Hey, we all need to know what any government is holding back on UFOs. What's the big secret?
Al
www.cybercoaching.ca
Well, I feel it's slightly more complex than that. McKinnon never claimed to have accessed NASA systems by accident -- yet most UK IT professionals seem to feel he still should not be extradicted.
One of the issues is the non-reciprocal arrangement the US has with the UK over extradition. The US seems to be setting a precedent of not having to provide any sort of evidence in British courts, yet still managing to arrange the extradition of a British citizen. This could be seen as being very dangerous.
McKinnon has received no assurances on who will try him. At the moment he could be tried by a US military tribunal, possibly under anti-terror laws with very punitive maximum penalties. At the very least the US could be seen to be making an example of McKinnon. Is that just? Is that justice?
Another issue is that the UK Crown Prosecution Service looked at the case, and decided McKinnon had no case to answer.
