Hacker accused of 'biggest military hack of all time' escapes inprisonment?

British prosecutors said on Thursday they would not bring charges against a computer expert accused by a US attorney of the "biggest military hack of all time", dealing a blow to his bid to avoid extradition. Gary McKinnon was arrested by British police in 2002 after US prosecutors charged him with illegally accessing computers, including the Pentagon, US army, navy and NASA systems, and causing$700,000 worth of damage.

A British court ruled in 2006 that heshould be extradited to the United States to face trial. If convictedby a US court, he could face up to 70 years in prison. McKinnon hasbeen battling the British court decision ever since. His lawyers asked Britain's Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to consider a requestto prosecute him in Britain where they believe he would receive a muchshorter sentence.

But the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said areview had concluded it would be wrong for him to face trial at home."These were not random experiments in computer hacking, but a deliberate effort to breach US defence systems at a critical time which caused well documented damage," said Alison Saunders, head of the CPS Organised Crime Division.

"They may have been conducted from MrMcKinnon's home computer - and in that sense there is a UK link - butthe target and the damage were transatlantic." McKinnon is accused ofcausing the entire US Army's Military District of Washington network ofmore than 2,000 computers to be shut down for 24 hours.

He has told Reuters he was just a computer nerd who wanted to find out whether aliens really existed and became obsessed with trawling large military networks for proof. At the time of his indictment, Paul McNulty, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said: "Mr McKinnon is charged with the biggest military computer hack of all time." The CPS decision does not spell the end of McKinnon's legal battle. Last month, London's High Court ruled McKinnon, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, could seek a judicial review of the government's decision to extradite him. His lawyers argue his health would sufferand he would be at real risk of suicide if he was handed over to US authorities.
Source: Reuters