Shortly after 9/11, Gary McKinnon—a “UFO-obsessed computer hacker”—allegedly hacked his way into 97 computers belonging to NASA, the Department of Defense and several branches of the US military. The European Court of Human Rights has cleared the way for McKinnon, who is British, to be extradited to the US where he would face eight charges of computer fraud. McKinnon appealed this decision and lost, and autism experts, politicians, lawyers and civil rights campaigners have been urging home secretary Jacqui Smith to intervene so McKinnon can be tried in Britain rather than being extradited to the US.
Experts including Simon Baron-Cohen, professor …read more

Gary McKinnon allegedly hacked his way into 97 computers belonging to NASA, the Department of Defense and several branches of the military, shortly after 9/11 occurred. The Associated Press says that the European Court of Human Rights has cleared the way for McKinnon, who is British, to be extradited to the US where he would face eight charges of computer fraud. McKinnon allegedly shut down the U.S. Army district responsible for protecting Washington, D.C., and cleared logs from computers at the Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey, which “tracks the location and battle-readiness of U.S. Navy ships.” McKinnon was …read more

18-year-old Owen Thor Walker of Hamilton, New Zealand, was the “mastermind”—-of a computer hacker sort—behind a worldwide group of criminals calling themselves the ‘A-Team’ and running a “sophisticated operation” that caused more than $20 million (£10 million) in damages to computer systems, the July 16th Telegraph reports. Walker has Aspeger Syndrome and designed software that enabled a criminal gang to steal user names and passwords and credit card information. In court on Tuesday, he was ordered by a judge to pay pay damages and costs of £5,000, but was not given a conviction and, indeed, looks like he’s going to …read more