'Biggest hacker' fights extradition

Briton accused of breaking into 90 military computers
Owen Bowcott


A Briton accused of carrying out "the biggest military computer hack of all time" appeared in a London court yesterday and vowed to resist attempts to extradite him for trial in the United States.

US prosecutors have alleged that Gary McKinnon, 39, from Wood Green, north London, hacked into more than 90 American military computers. His supporters say the proceedings are politically motivated.

Mr McKinnon believed the US government was hiding evidence that would prove the existence of UFOs and wanted to demonstrate the inadequacies of America's security systems. He was arrested under the Computer Misuse Act three years ago but was never charged in this country.

The 20 counts he faced yesterday allege that he caused "unauthorised modifications", stole computer files, obtained secrets that might have been "directly or indirectly useful to an enemy" and interfered with maritime navigation equipment in New Jersey.

The computers targeted in 2001 and 2002 - before and after al-Qaida's 9/11 attacks - belonged to the US army, navy and airforce, as well as the Defence Department and the space agency Nasa. Most of the offences carry prison terms of up to five years each.

Known online as Solo, Mr McKinnon had, according to earlier US indictments, broken into several computers at the Pentagon as well as private networks run by six separate companies. He supposedly stole 950 passwords from one military system and prevented naval email traffic being routed across the internet for a month.

By usurping privileges built into the systems and installing a remote control programme, he allegedly gained access to "almost every administrative function" on many of the computers he targeted.

The US investigation was carried out with the aid of the UK's national hi-tech crime unit. Mr McKinnon was arrested on Tuesday evening, held overnight at Belgravia police station and delivered to Bow Street magistrates court yesterday morning.

Wearing green combat trousers and a grey sweatshirt, he spoke only once when he refused to give his consent to the US extradition request.

His counsel, Mohammed Khamisa, said he intended to contest the application "vigorously".

Among bail conditions imposed by the court were requirements that Mr McKinnon should report to his local police station daily, not apply for a passport and not use any computer with access to the internet. Mr Khamisa succeeded in reducing his bail security from £10,000 to £5,000 which the family raised last night.

Janet Boston, for the prosecution service, told the court: "Between February 2001 and March 2002, Mr McKinnon accessed without authority some 97 US government computers and installed an unauthorised programme called Remotely Anywhere which allowed him to control computers remotely.

"The fact that it had been implanted could not be detected. This caused damage and impaired the integrity of information ... The US military district of Washington became inoperable and the cost of repairing [the shutdown] was $700,000 [around £390,000]." Among those in court was FBI official Ed Gibson, who said the case had been followed closely by the US authorities. "These [hacking attacks] occurred just before and after 9/11," he said. "It was poor timing. The military knew someone was getting access before the 9/11 attacks, but they didn't know who."

After the hearing, his solicitor, Karen Todner, questioned why Mr McKinnon had not been tried in Britain under the Computer Misuse Act.

"This decision is being driven by the the US government," she said. "Of particular concern to Gary is the treatment of other British nationals within the US justice system which inspires little confidence. He believes he should be tried here by a British jury, not in the US. Had he been arrested, charged and convicted in 2002 he would probably have been out by now."

Ms Todner said that he eventually could face a total of up to 70 years in a US jail.

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