gary mckinnon

Just when it looked like every avenue to prevent the extradition of self-confessed NASA Hacker Gary McKinnon had been exhausted, especially when just last week a couple of High Court judges denied him leave to appeal his case to the highest court in the UK, it looks like the hacking cause célèbre has got a reprieve.

Gary McKinnon is either a UFO-obsessed nerd who happens to suffer from a form of autism, or a fugitive from justice who was responsible for the biggest military hack of all time.

The description varies depending upon whether you are a balanced individual with no axe to grind or the US authorities looking for a scapegoat to deflect the simple fact that their own cyber-defences are woefully inadequate.

Rather predictably, but nonetheless sadly, Gary McKinnon today lost his judicial review in London which he was hoping would allow him to be tried for his crimes in the UK rather than extradited...

There has been a lot of comment in the past on Gary McKinnon and his hacking into US military computers. Readers might understand that some of the comment in the UK has been about how he should have been tried over here, there's no need to extradite him and if America's military systems are such that they can be hacked so easily that's their problem.

Our legal system feels differently. He's going to stand trial in the US. I have to admit, even as a UK subject, I think that's the right decision.

Before any Brits get annoyed with me, let's take a step back: suppose he'd been an American...

The High Court in the UK will this Friday decide if an appeal against the Home Office backed decision to extradite Gary McKinnon on hacking charges to the US is to be upheld or, as seems likely, not.

McKinnon has been accused of what US prosecutors refer to the biggest military computer hack of all time after hacking into US military computers right after the 9/11 attacks.

He is said to have deleted files, bringing the station to a standstill, at the New Jersey Naval Base that has responsibility for supplying munitions to the Atlantic Fleet.

McKinnon, a former systems analyst, is also a man...