Posted on 08/02/2008 2:16:23 PM PDT by CarrotAndStick
Gary McKinnon, the British hacker who broke into military computers looking for evidence of UFOs in the "biggest military hack of all time," did so using his home computer and a 56k modem. I think we just lost our rights to complain about not having Japan-fast broadband.
Using his own computer at home in London, McKinnon hacked into 97 computers belonging to and used by the U.S. government between February 2001 and March 2002.
McKinnon is accused of causing the entire U.S. Army's Military District of Washington network of more than 2,000 computers to be shut down for 24 hours.
Using a limited 56-kbps dialup modem and the hacking name "Solo" he found many U.S. security systems used an insecure Microsoft Windows program with no password protection.
He then bought off-the-shelf software and scanned military networks, saying he found expert testimonies from senior figures reporting that technology obtained from extra-terrestrials did exist.
At the time of his indictment, Paul McNulty, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said: "Mr. McKinnon is charged with the biggest military computer hack of all time."
He's currently awaiting extradition to the United States where, if convicted, he'll face up to 70 years in jail and up to $1.75 million in fines. Let us know about that alien technology first, Gary! [Valleywag]
...that we know of...
If so, whoever installed that should be fired.
I bet they did not even have a firewall.
he hacked it in ‘91 and ‘92 and it just finished downloading...
LOL!
Does HE now have the advanced alien technology?
I see a very cushy and lucrative job with a big software company in this guy’s future.
Very funny!
It's a well-known fact that ET has lousy data security!
I think Mr McKinnon IS an extraterrestrial brought here to show our government it’s security is as solid as wet snotpaper.
Not the most flattering photo of him. Kind of makes him look like the illegitimate offspring of Danny Bonaduce and Carrot Top.
> He’s currently awaiting extradition to the United States where, if convicted, he’ll face up to 70 years in jail and up to $1.75 million in fines.
I hope he gets off scot-free: it will do no good at all to send him to gaol. Clearly the US Military needs somebody with his smarts to test their vulnerabilities. They should be thankful that it was only a relatively-harmless UFO nut doing the hack, rather than al Qaeda.
oh, so what. 56K aint that far out of date.
Now, had he used a Commodore 64 with a blazing 300-baud modem, that would've been impressive!
Commodore 64, that’s no big deal, try an Atari 400 with the 300 baud Atari 830 modem.
Guys like this are 1000 times harmless than the porn-spammers. To call this the biggest military hack is a bad joke. The full time Chinese spy agents working 24/7 to hack our every system makes this look like what it is, amateur snooping. This is like a UFO nut standing outside a military base with a pair of goggles hoping to glimpse an alien autopsy. What the Chinese are doing is a concerted effort to glean every secret we have, both technological as well as military.
What’s the big deal about the connection? They act as if it were some extraordinary feat to hack on dialup as compared to some form of broadband. It’s all bits, only difference was in how fast he could hack it.
As for security, it doesn’t surprise me. One of the worst security setups I’ve seen while working with networks was a state system concerning their election and voter registration. It was practically wide open. Helping to set up a county node, I offered the info to the state network administrator with whom I was working. They weren’t concerned as a private sector employee couldn’t possibly know as much as a government one.
Kevin Mitnik was using Win 3.1 to do his hacking.
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