@crayonwaxy:
well, he did 7 years ago. I think alot of people had 56k back then.

makalaka

@K-SO: @cipotefello: The article says: "He's currently awaiting extradition to the United States..." That means that his government arrested him and is turning him over to the US to face trial and punishment here. Such things are not unheard of and are usually offered as a trade for something else. We may have even extradited someone we were holding to them in exchange.

Aoi

@yungjerry703: Read up on the back story, the guy is a total nutjob, he was haxoring to find the hidden proof of aliens.

MartinX

The leet haxoring happened 7 years ago, broadband connections were rarer back then in the UK.

It's just taken this long to sort out the legalities of the extradition.

Unfortunatly the guy isn't being punished for the hack, he's being punished for embarassing the US government by showing everyone that they had staffed their IT security team entirely with retards.

MartinX

wow his home computer? are you serious? every hacker i know has a "throw away" notebook or desktop and they used high power wifi antenna to steal internet from a long distance. there is a thin line between genius and idiot apparently.

yungjerry703

@K-SO: yes and no. it all depends on the county's extradition laws and how nice the involved countries play together. chances are he wont see a day in jail. officially they will have him in jail but in reality they'll stick him in some bunker hacking for the U.S gov under the code name "next time lets use OSX rather than Windows".

Boots_Mcoy

Are you kidding me? I would make him work for us instead of jailing him.

CarbonatedWater

56k internet connections will become the new favourite hackers tool now.

Emiat

@cipotefello: My fault, he's British,then wtf?

cipotefello

@K-SO: I'm assuming he's American

cipotefello

so... he's being taken out of his country to be arrested in another?
is that... legal?

K-SO

sweet.. we want the info!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

zixyon

Thats awesome

Felix26591

The question is why on earth would a hacker use a 56k connection to do it. Does he not have access to a broadband connection or something? Kudos to him though.

crayonwaxy

DSL and Cable are the work of the aliens. There's no way a human being could create such high speed. 56k? That's pure human creation baby!

Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy

we're missing the big picture here: "he found expert testimonies from senior figures reporting that technology obtained from extra-terrestrials did exist."

he has proof.
awesome and freaking cool as it may be,
thats more than enough for the government to 'silence' him.

Capt Castellanos

The guy is hacking computers, not downloading porn off of those computers - why would he need a japan-fast broadband?

outie

@makalaka:
It's probably also easier to get one without putting your name on things, compared to broadband services where you'd have to sign up/register. It could help with not being traced... though if that's the case, it certainly didn't work.

Blah8

If he gets extradited, we should hire him to run the CIA network systems. He's good. Let's put him to work and pay him very well and keep him happy!

altus

@crayonwaxy:
Quite likely because he did it back in 2001/2002. As I remember it, home broadband was taking its first baby steps back then. The world has changed a lot in the past 6 years, at least in relation to internet access.

Matt

@MartinX:

Exactly. I have the feeling he may be unfairly made an example of - really whatever idiots left such glaring holes in the US military's security (no passwords!) are equally responsible, and should thank their lucky stars that it was just some nutter looking for aliens that brought this to their attention.

treetrunk

What he did was really amazing. But let's face it, seven years ago their security network wasn't as strong as it is nowadays. And if he could successfully hack it with a dial-up connection, then it wasn't that hard break in at all.

Tiago Sartor

More important: I can get faster broadband speeds in Japan? Konichiwa, pr0n!

Absent Blue

Yeah.... he's being extradited to the U.S. from Europe for a life sentence because he's a nut with a 56k modem.

...Or maybe it's because he found something really important and they need to keep people like him locked up.

Loose lips sink ships!

dna

I bet you if he ever did cough up the records to prove what he says the government would just say it was a Honey Pot to trick gullible conspiracy theorists.

nyaz

Carrot Top hacked the governments computer?

BiZarRroBALlmeR

@K-SO: Extradition. Wiki that shit.

MasterJoefus

@regexp: aww man, that sucks. well i just want to believe.

Capt Castellanos

@Capt Castellanos: Yea - accept you missed the part where he is a complete nutjob. He has no credibility. The sad part is that the US government already offered him a decent deal and he turned it down. So instead of spending what amounts to a few months in prison - he will spend decades. Idiot.

regexp

.... Isn't it illegal for the us government to take someone from a different country?

If he does get sentance, we will hear about how he hacked the pentagon, nasa, every army base on earth, and every home computer to ever exist, with just a paper clip, a pen, and a piece of string!

HawkSkater0

Dammit, I spelled "Extradition" wrong way too many times in that post.

MartinX

See, I don't need to upgrade to an iPhone 3g yet, frooch

Chatty

@yungjerry703:

As a Brit whos been following this case it is worth remembering that the guy has admitted to being VERY VERY VERY VERY STONED when he did it all, so maybe thats why he ended up getting caught and didnt use that much protection.

Just goes to show that if a stoned hacker can break in, imagine what those highly motivated spies must be up to

dk42

@Aoi: "Such things are not unheard of and are usually offered as a trade for something else. We may have even extradited someone we were holding to them in exchange"

Lol, back in the Cold War, with the CIA and KGB swapping spies maybe :p

Many countries with similar legal structures and principles, like the US and UK, have extradion treaties, which makes the process much simpler.

For instance, If I'm a british citizen and I rob a bank in the US and then move back to the UK, because robbing a bank is illegal in both countries, and because both countries have similar legal standards for trying cases, and because the penalties are broadly similar, the extradition back to the US would basically be a mere formality, there's no trading involved, except that it's understood that it works both ways.

It's a pretty transparent and straightforward process (As long as the countries involved have a pre-existing extradion treaty, like the UK and US).

The only things that complicate extradition between countries that have treaties are where it's not clear that a crime was committed, or the penalties are wildly divergent, for example, If I murdered a bunch of orphans in Texas and then fled to the UK, the UK would not extradite me back to the US beacause the UK doesn't recognise the death penalty. Of course that wouldn't work if I was a US citizen, because then it wouldn't be extradition, it would be simple Repatriation/Deportation and I'd be on the next plane back.

In this specific case, the reason the extradition took so long is that there was serious question as to whether the guy would get a fair trial and/or a fair punishment, or if he'd simply be blackbagged and sent to Gitmo forever as soon as he stepped off the plane. The british courts basically decided this week that he'd probaly get a fair trial and approved the extradion.

MartinX

Dial-up FTW!!!!!

Evangelion

He probably went right through Falcon's Maze.

homerjay

I thought this post was some sort of sick joke when firefox said "gizmodo.com is not responding". I'm not joking, that actually just happened, and only while loading this article.

Pablos102030

I hope you backed up that data and have it well hidden in the woods somewhere so if they lock you up, you can expose it

Digitallysick

"No more secrets."

SinAmos

@HawkSkater0:

lol not when your the one who makes the laws.

ajcali08

The feds are TOTALLY gonna shut down Giz for posting this story. They can't let the fact out that the Gray's technology is what makes my JesusPhone work!

philbert

I don't see what the big deal is. I've got all sorts of stuff made by Mexicans.

waterwizard

@crayonwaxy:
Maybe the connection was so slow that the server firewalls dismissed it as not being sufficient threat to block?

@K-SO:
Yes, provided the two countries involved have an extradition treaty. Now, if he was sitting in some backwater country that has a big mad hate-on for the US, then no, we could probably argue til the sun goes dark and their only reaction would be to either laugh or start with the macho posturing (at which point we might just run a black ops mission and snatch the guy). But the UK signed an agreement saying they'd hand over people accused of crimes within the US if the US would reciprocate.

@Aoi:
It's the UK, not some quasi-ally from the Middle East. We don't need to do a full-out prisoner exchange to get someone extradited between the US and the UK.

@Absent Blue:
Ah, it's just because instead of downloading individual letters, you're downloading entire words. Seriously. That's all it is. Really. Would this face lie to you?

Actually, it's probably at least partly a result of population density. There's the whole thing with DSL signal speed decreasing with distance, so a more densely packed customer base will be closer, on average, to the hub. US-style Cable should actually be worse (more users = lower speeds for everyone, and TV-on-demand adds to the user load), so I'd wonder if they'd even touch that. But the most telling bit would be that with a much more centralized population, upgrading isn't nearly as costly as it would be if they were spread out over an area ten times as large.

@dk42:
So...what you're saying is that maybe he just _thinks_ he hacked into all those servers, but the US military is just going after him for attempting to do so? :D

Purple Dave

"Would you like to play a...why do you want to read top secret files? Come on! Let's blow up the country! Reading is bor++++CARRIER LOST+++++"

DataScream

wow....the people on gizmodo who are from other countries seem to have a greal good sense of the law and how it works.

i'd say that i bet it's impossible for something like this to ever happen again but...i doubt it. one piece of unsecure software is all it takes to get through? i'm sure they now have software which watches for mistakes like this but even still it wouldnt surprise me if a piece of software somehow falls through the cracks one day.

jrghoull

Hell yeah, I love this guy.

But now I'm curious about that alien stuff.

videoCWK

@dna: No, to the US from the UK. Nothing to do with Europe.

Onouris

@Tiago Sartor:
"And if he could successfully hack it with a dial-up connection, then it wasn't that hard break in at all."

Because we all know that the dial-up internet is significantly less secure than the broadband internet.

WebcoW

I would like to see an episode of this in the next GTA. The GTA:SA arc is just too funny.

JaLooNz

@homerjay: yay.

badhatharry

@Evangelion: I'm trying desperately to figure out why in the name of God almighty you would even have posted that.

I'm just going to point out how incredibly close that crap is to basically being a ban-worthy "FIRST!!!1!" post.

Pope John Peeps II

They would not send such a smart guy to jail, the "COVER STORY" might be that he went to jail, but the US Govt is going to give him a job offer, no doubt.

kcm117

Instead of emprisoning him, you'd think they'd at least thank him for pointing out a really fucking stupid loophole in their system.... Jeez.

PlayerX

No security isn't a loophole, and the guy was looking for ET, he's nuts.
Lock him up and make sure no one can do it again. Then just for kicks set up a honey pot and continue arresting the goof that try to hack it.

Crowbot

There are tons of attacks on DoD computers everyday from more unscrupulous individuals/groups. This brit's only crime was curiosity and confusing the X-Files with reality.

hisham

56k allows you to login from just about anywhere anonymously using many methods (such as prepaid) from different locations with nothing linking it back to you. However, Broadband will always show your IP address be it dynamic or static. which is why in movies, they show the culprit covering his/her track by confusing his foe with fake locations and addresses.

OneObuyan

its all done in a command prompt, which broadband is not needed for. and dial up is a liittle more anonymous.. im guessing he got caught cause he was talking bout the info.

and if he gets thrown in jail it must be true!

DMF

I can't believe you people are criticizing this guy. All he did was search for the truth about something he believes strongly about. I'd like to see some of the stuff he read on Aliens, because I find that kind of stuff fascinating. I mean if there really are documents with top government officials discussing E.T and the like, that's kind of cool.

Even if you don't believe in Aliens, it's should be in your best interest to know what the government is hiding from you.

tls502

When did Peter Pan get a computer?

MooseDesign

@tls502: So if some stranger wandered into your house because you left the yard door unlocked, and started going through all your stuff you'd be okay with that as long as he was only looking for the truth?

Really?

:p

MartinX

@tls502: first off if there are such documents you really think the goverment would put such sensitive material on a computer that has access to the internet? no it would be in some vault deep underground. Second of all he basicly did the internet equivilent of
breaking into some ones home to look for said documents. Researching is fine however when you have to hack into other computers and do illegal things it is no longer researching.

taftsearlobe33

I hear there's a SysAdmin opening for the city of San Fran. Sounds like he's perfect for the job.

GadgetPlay

@K-SO:

Yes it is. If the country he committed the crime in or against pushes for that it can happen.

CCCombobreaker

Talk about the Turtle and the Hare.

Klappstuhl

@homerjay: 56k is for lamerz. Acoustic couplers are for the 1337.

dingus

The best strategy is not to play.

How about a game of chess?

strider_mt2k

And the guy is probably just a looser who got "lucky" and found some flaw in their system. He also most certainly doesn't deserve the punishment he'll get just because the US gov't needs another scapegoat...

Rustabout

@MartinX:
that's well explained, apart for one little mistake: if you're a US citizen and you killed a bunch of kids in Texas and then move to the UK, you cannot (in theory) be extradited because of the UK's signing of the European Human Rights Act, which would forbid the extradition no matter what your nationality is, because of the death penalty.

Rustabout

70 years jail time = 70 years gov. contract

bookmark

It took him 10 years.

michaelleung

They exist. Gary's a dumb ass.

crosshare

well it was windows that he hacked... I can crack windows with a bat (bad joke)

But it would be really impressive if he hacked the government with a computer that was off and had no internet connection at all!

HawkSkater0

When china hacked the pentagon, they had to take the computers offline for 3 weeks.

This guy hacks them and they have to take offline for 24 hours and its the biggest hack of all time?

something doesnt add up, and makes me think they are making him sound more dangerous, so the extradition will go through.

prodigal_son

Man, the guy just wants to know the truth. we all do. Considering what he used to "hack" these government computers he should be given a freaking medal. and a spot on Jimmy Kimmel where he can then tell everyone what he found out.

mordennight

The real news is the US govnerment uses Windows 3.11 for Networks to run their operations.

Time to upgrade to Windows ME, I guess.

ALIENS!

Stacky Botrus

Well, he didn't "hack" anything. They didn't password protect their shizz, so he technically didn't do anything wrong.

Antioch18

If he really had hard evidence, the US wouldn't dare try to extradite him.

bobx3

@crayonwaxy: uhhh...it was 2001 in BRITAIN...don't think they had fios back then..'tard.

l4crosse

If that's the case, then I'm actually pissed that the government is hiding information from us about this so called technology obtained from "extraterrestrials."

Trowble (XBL/PSN)

I'd like to know why they shut down 2,000 computers for a day, was it because they didn't have security or even test their systems? Having a MS application that allows someone in seems like they didn't even bother to have a security team try to break into the network to see if it was safe or not.
Really surprising he didn't make the modem calls from somewhere other than his home though. I just can't see how you'd sleep at night sitting there at home trying to break into a military system.

Nick_Bentley

Wow, the ignorance here is shocking. How can more bandwidth possible help a hacker? Hacking isnt like how it is in the movies. Its all command line stuff that doesnt need broadband. Most likely telnet, rlogin, and ssh connections.

His alien technology is a list of "extra-planetary officers." I doubt its genuine and sounds like a stupid way to leverage public support and fight extradition.

He did the crime. Now he does the time. There's nothing wrong with that.

lowbot

Yea and out of all the *alledged* reports about alien blah blah blah he didn't even happen to copy just ONE report and get it out for the public to see huh? Yea right!! If yall believe his BS I got a bridge to sell ya as well!!

beazz

What a Badass!

NoSchool

Back in 2001 56k dial-up connection were the norm in the UK. Broadband didnt really take off for another couple of years.

Napalmhaze

@tls502: Um, what he did was illegal. Of course he should be critized and punished. If I rob your wallet from you, because I think its in my interesting and the world's interest to know your debit/credit card number are you going to be upset with me? Sure you are.

bbfreak

Gary M is my hero!!! We in this country are so worried about terrorism, he has shown how vulnerable we really are. Call me crazy, but I believe him. I believe the world is in for a new awakening of the extraterrestrial sort. Our children and even most of us will soon be privy to this "secret" of life beyond. Religion as we know it and were brought up with, will soon be a thing of fanciful folly. Not for everyone mind you, I must say the hopelessly religious are a tenacious bunch and may not believe until they land on the lawn of the White House.

BigMacster

@CarbonatedWater: That's usually what ends up happening. I believe that the kid that hacked into NASA now works for the government. Not 100% on that though.

StopTheLHC

Seems we found the person to play The Riddler in the next Batman movie.

Demosthenes7898

@Nick_Bentley: translation - his hacking was detected and connections to the outside world were turned off until they were sure they had secured the network a little bit better.

It really isn't a big deal to hack into an unsecured network and this dope proves it.

friendslikeJimRome

Using off the shelf software to scan for users with no passwords defined hacking

Bluesk1d

@prodigal_son: Well, it was just this one guy. China has a ton of hackers working at the same time. So one guy bringing down defense systems for 24 hours is a lot cooler than a hundred Chinese hackers bringing it down for three weeks. And besides, it was over a dial-up connection.

michaelleung

The guy's a script kiddie who demonstrated that security in supposed top secret installations was nil. Hopefully that's less true now. But taking advantage of exploits in software or poor security practices hardly counts as hacking.

I cringe when I see pictures of the Pentagon, particularly the war room, and they're running Windows. The bottom line is, unless software is free (as in freedom, not as in free beer) it can never really be secure. Not ever. That includes, btw, voting machines in the US.

stryder100

Anyone else think this dude looks like a Hobbit?

OtisCabeal

@crayonwaxy: SIlly this was in 2001, Alot of people didn't have broadband then. Hell, Some towns around the city i live in still only have dial up.

Jagzi11a

"A home machine that is dialing up through a modem often has an IP address that is assigned by the ISP when the machine dials in. That IP address is unique for that session -- it may be different the next time the machine dials in."
-How stuff works.com

ohhh...so that's how...

dandaman247

Using his own computer at home in London, McKinnon hacked into 97 computers belonging to and used by the U.S. government between February 2001 and March 2002.

McKinnon is accused of causing the entire U.S. Army's Military District of Washington network of more than 2,000 computers to be shut down for 24 hours.

Using a limited 56K dial-up modem and the hacking name "Solo" he found many U.S. security systems used an insecure Microsoft Windows program with no password protection.

He then bought off-the-shelf software and scanned military networks, saying he found expert testimonies from senior figures reporting that technology obtained from extra-terrestrials did exist.

At the time of his indictment, Paul McNulty, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said: "Mr. McKinnon is charged with the biggest military computer hack of all time."

... that was pulled from yahoo news.

somebody isnt being very original...

who is copying and pasting info?

yahoo or valleywag?

lol.

arcanedark

Yup, Black Ops US Space Corps, takin' trips to dust off the solar panels on the Mars Rover! Checking out the moon mining and space freighter operations and zoomin to other galaxies to meet with the aliens responsible for providing us with this technology. Oh, the "space shuttle?" Just a flying public distraction that the secret astronauts laugh at, and would NEVER ride on! And about the SOUL CATCHER device on the moon.....

Dr.Remulak

I am an alien, and I don't even have Broadbands. The inarWebs SUCK!

frogfart