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| Supporters of Gary McKinnon on the internet are
campaigning for him not to be extradited. |
Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have advised
hackers to think carefully about the consequences of their
activities, following the decision to continue the extradition to
the USA of a British man who is alleged to have broken into
Pentagon and NASA computers.
Gary McKinnon, a 40-year-old computer enthusiast from North
London, is alleged to have hacked into computers belonging to the
US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, Department of Defense and NASA.
McKinnon claims that he did not break into the networks with
malicious intent, but to uncover confidential information about
anti-gravity propulsion systems and extraterrestrial technology
which he believed the authorities were hiding from the public.
McKinnon has been leading a high profile campaign to avoid
extradition, demanding that the US authorities should provide
evidence of his supposed crimes and damage caused to the UK court,
and claiming that he could be sent to the US military camp at
Guantanamo Bay. His campaign has been supported by many others in
the hacking community.
McKinnon says that he was caught while viewing an image of what
he believed to be a UFO on a NASA computer.
In a judgment today, a court said it was satisfied that
McKinnon's extradition would be compatible with his human rights.
The case will now be considered by John Reid, the British Home
Secretary.
"There's a clear message here - don't mess with the Americans!
Earlier this week they dished out the toughest
sentence ever to a malware author, today they sound like
they're going to be able to extradite a high profile suspected
hacker," said Graham
Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "If you or
your malware hacks into a US government computer, regardless of
your motives, you are really asking for trouble. Governments around
the world are getting more serious about pursuing cybercriminals,
and are increasingly succeeding in catching the culprits. Now might
be a good time for hackers to switch to a new, safer hobby."
McKinnon claimed in a BBC interview broadcast last week that he
broke into military PCs which were not protected properly with
passwords. Sophos reminds organizations that they must defend their
computers sensibly with secure passwords, operating system security
patches, firewalls and up-to-date anti-virus software.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.