Last chance saloon for NASA hacker

Gary McKinnon, who lost his House of Lords appeal against extradition to the United States at the end of July, has been given two extra weeks' breathing space.

The 42-year-old hacker from North London has admitted hacking into computers belonging to the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, Department of Defense and NASA, but claims he was only looking for evidence of a UFO cover-up by authorities.

Today it was revealed that he has been granted a short stay of ~~execution~~ (whoops!) extradition until 28 August, when the European Court of Human Rights will consider whether it will agree to hear his appeal.

It's hard not to feel sorry for Gary McKinnon. Obviously hacking into US military computers in the weeks after September 11 2001 was demonstrating a remarkable amount of daftness, but it's a tough world which considers his crimes as seriously as the financially-motivated criminals who dominate the internet underground today.

We'll keep you updated as this story develops.

Picture credit: NASA