UK hacker loses extradition fight
From the BBC new website, April 3, 2007

"A British man has lost his High Court fight against extradition to the US for allegedly carrying out the 'biggest military computer hack of all time.'

"Glasgow-born Gary McKinnon, of north London, is accused of gaining access to 97 US military and Nasa computers....

"He would also face a long prison sentence - 'in the region of 45 years.' Home Secretary John Reid granted the US request to extradite him for trial...

"Mr McKinnon has never denied that he accessed the computer networks of a wide number of US military institutions between February 2001 and March 2002.
Mr McKinnon, arrested in November 2002, has always maintained that he was motivated by curiosity [emphasis added] and that he only managed to get into the networks because of lax security."

More on this story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6521255.stm

Carolyn notes: He did it out of curiosity? Curiosity! Where did this man get his brains???? Burglars never get out of going to prison by telling the judge, “I was just curious, I was going to put back all this cash and jewels as soon as I got playing with them. Honest!”

Unlike burglars, computer criminals like Kinnon don't ever get killed on the spot if somebody catches them in the act. Instead, they have to wait to get beaten, raped or murdered later, when they end up behind bars with roommates “Bubba” and “Spike.”

I'm not kidding. As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackman wrote in Farmer v. Brennan, “The horrors experienced by many young inmates, particularly those who are convicted of nonviolent offenses, border on the unimaginable.” As one prisoner wrote, “I have been raped by up to 5 black men and two white men at a time. I've had knifes at my head and throat. I had fought and been beat so hard that I didn't ever think I'd see straight again…. I probably have AIDS now.”

For more, much more about prisoners getting raped by guards and other prisoners, see http://www.spr.org/.

To learn more about other horrors awaiting computer criminals, read Justin Peterson's story of his ordeal spending years behind bars for computer crime.

Just in case anyone reading this is contemplating burglary, you are asking for instant death. Seriously. In some places around the world, including many places in the U.S., people kill burglars and never get into trouble with the law. Some people kill burglars even if they know it can get them into trouble. Ouch!

You can go to jail warning: Check with your local authorities to learn under what, if any, circumstances you are allowed to capture, wound or kill burglars, because in some localities you can go to jail for hurting the poor, poor criminal.

For the record, I don’t plan on killing any burglars. Twice I’ve found someone sneaking around and guess what? If it’s too dark for the bad guy to see much, shouting while lunging at him makes him run like a rabbit. It’s fun, too.

The second time was a moonless, starry night. We had been keeping our home totally dark so our eyes would be adjusted to the dark whenever we went outside to look at Halley’s comet. (See www.spaceweather.com for why we think this is fun.)

Anyhow, I opened a sliding glass door and went bopping through it when, lo and behold, just a few feet away, I saw s a big shape outlined against the stars. I hollered and lunged at it, thinking it was just another bear. Only when the intruder ran from me on two legs instead of four did I realize it had to be a human. Well, OK, most humans are less dangerous than bears, but back then I didn't know this.

You can get eaten by a bear warning: Oopsie! I later learned that although loud noises usually are a good way to run off bears, surprising a bear who is right next to you is a good way to become bear food. According to the U.S. Scouting Project Service, “calm behavior has proven the most successful” at staying alive in a close encounter.

Lesson learned: I should quit acting like the star of a martial arts movie if it is too dark for me to tell what I’m fighting.

Nowadays, my first line of defense is guard dogs. Second line: an electronic intrusion detection system that automatically sends a law officer to my home. Third line: I carry an electronic device with a button that instantly calls officers to my home. Finally, I have certain other systems, heh, heh, let’s call them “security by obscurity” defenses. None of them will get me in trouble with the law, and some of them are lots of fun. Hmmm, just got an idea, maybe I could teach my horses to behave like guard dogs?

Anyhow, regardless of whether people commit computer crime or the more muscular types of crimes like robbery, burglary, assault ot murder, they are just asking for a world of hurt -- it their victims don't clobber them first.

More about the woes of computer criminals --->>