UK Hacker to serve time in UK Jail?
- By Tony Pullon
- Published 5/11/2008
Tony Pullon
Managing Director Net-Ctrl Limited
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It's difficult to feel sorry for a hacker who deliberately trespassed on networks owned by Nasa, the US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Department of Defense. He knowingly accessed these systems which could easily have exposed our nations to unnecccessary risk. BUT, a group of UK MP's are calling for Mr Mickinnon (the Hacker) to serve his time here in the UK because he has a mental disorder known as Asperger's Syndrome, which is like a mild form of Autism.
Mr McKinnon faces extradition to the US for breaking into American military networks between February 2001 and March 2002 and if tried and convicted in a US court, Mr McKinnon could face decades of jail time, and millions of dollars in fines. Not that he could ever pay the fines!
However, despite taking his appeal to the House of Lords, Mr McKinnon lost a six-year legal battle to avoid extradition. Additionally the European Court of Human Rights also declined to back Mr McKinnon's case against extradition.
Now Mr McKinnon awaits a decision by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith as to when the extradition process will begin.
Meanwhile, 20 UK MPs have signed an Early Day Motion which calls for any sentence imposed by a US court to be served in a British jail.
Mr McKinnon's MP, Shadow justice minister David Burrowes who has drawn up the early day motion, cites the practice of the Netherlands, and Israel, which often request that nationals suffering medical or mental problems are repatriated to serve their sentence.
Mr Burrowes tabled the motion after receiving word from the Government that Mr McKinnon's diagnosis with Asperger's was not sufficient grounds for refusing the extradition order.
It urged Jacqui Smith to delay extradition proceedings until she had won assurances from the US that Mr McKinnon would be sent back to the UK to serve his sentence, due to his medical situation.
I can't comment as to whether Mr McKinnon is or isn't a genuine sufferer of Asperger's Syndrome but I can advise any organisation that they must recognise the very real threat from hackers and take sensible steps to mitigate the risks.
Our advice would always be to install and implement an industrial strength firewall, ideally an application layer 7 application proxy device such as SecureFirewall (formerly Sidewinder) from Secure Computing.
If you are uncertain as to whether your Internet Gateway Security is fit for purpose please call us to arrange a security audit.
Mr McKinnon faces extradition to the US for breaking into American military networks between February 2001 and March 2002 and if tried and convicted in a US court, Mr McKinnon could face decades of jail time, and millions of dollars in fines. Not that he could ever pay the fines!
However, despite taking his appeal to the House of Lords, Mr McKinnon lost a six-year legal battle to avoid extradition. Additionally the European Court of Human Rights also declined to back Mr McKinnon's case against extradition.
Now Mr McKinnon awaits a decision by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith as to when the extradition process will begin.
Meanwhile, 20 UK MPs have signed an Early Day Motion which calls for any sentence imposed by a US court to be served in a British jail.
Mr McKinnon's MP, Shadow justice minister David Burrowes who has drawn up the early day motion, cites the practice of the Netherlands, and Israel, which often request that nationals suffering medical or mental problems are repatriated to serve their sentence.
Mr Burrowes tabled the motion after receiving word from the Government that Mr McKinnon's diagnosis with Asperger's was not sufficient grounds for refusing the extradition order.
It urged Jacqui Smith to delay extradition proceedings until she had won assurances from the US that Mr McKinnon would be sent back to the UK to serve his sentence, due to his medical situation.
I can't comment as to whether Mr McKinnon is or isn't a genuine sufferer of Asperger's Syndrome but I can advise any organisation that they must recognise the very real threat from hackers and take sensible steps to mitigate the risks.
Our advice would always be to install and implement an industrial strength firewall, ideally an application layer 7 application proxy device such as SecureFirewall (formerly Sidewinder) from Secure Computing.
If you are uncertain as to whether your Internet Gateway Security is fit for purpose please call us to arrange a security audit.
