Computer hacker facing US trial – Gary McKinnon

I’m trying to keep the content on this site focussed on .NET and programming / developing software but every so often I feel compelled to speak up about something outside that arena – this post is one of those posts.

I don’t have much to do with hackers besides writing code that should keep them out of websites, as far as I know none of the sites I’ve written have attracted any attention from hackers – I suspect they’ve got their sites set on more interesting targets. However the recent decision by the British government to extradite computer hacker Gary McKinnon upset me enough that I’m posting about it here to vent my feelings.

To me this seems to sell out British citizens and I have to wonder to whom the government is answerable to, is it the British citizenship or the American government. I’m not condoning hacking, what Mr McKinnon did was wrong end of discussion. What secrets did he steal, what damage did he cause? Well besides hacking into US government computers, including those of NASA and the Pentagon… the only damage he seems to have caused is to reputation of the IT departments that set up the weak security ‘protecting’ those computers – access was gained using default administrator passwords! It is lucky that he wasn’t out to steal secrets or cause problems. According to Mr McKinnon he was on a “moral crusade” to prove US intelligence had found an alien craft run on clean fuel. I agree he should be punished but that can be done on British soil and by our own penal system; the US government has zero credibility for dealing with suspects after Guantanamo bay. America still has the death penalty for juvenile offenders, there is no moral high ground to be had there!

Mr McKinnon is a British citizen, the crimes he committed were carried out on British soil and he should be dealt with by the British legal system. Each country has its own set of laws and it is not right to enforce those laws outside the jurisdiction of that country, in the current global age is is wrong to assume that criminals will not look abroad to commit their crimes. However international laws should exist to deal with such situations as they do for other crimes.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson could block the extradition, he could stand up for a British citizen, he could recognise the unusual and cruel treatment of Mr McKinnon who has been in an heightened state of terror for almost eight years, he could recognise the mental vulnerability of Mr McKinnon and keep him on home soil. However he has chosen not to and seems to have fast tracked this case.

I hope the European Court of Human Rights can step in and apply some common sense here.