McKinnon, who said he probed the computers looking for evidence that the US government has knowledge of UFOs, maintains that his hacking never caused any harm.
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motters
14 years 32 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago
Not much sympathy
I don't have very much sympathy for this guy. If you gain unauthorized access to US government computers - even if it's by implementing a really lame hack - I think you can reasonably expect there to be some blowback.
I think McKinnon is probably telling the truth when he says that he didn't actually do any damage. The damage will have been to the pride of those who owned the computers, who probably like to convey the false impression that they're super-secure and virtually impregnable. The degree of lameness of McKinnon's hackery must be extremely embarassing for them.
McKinnon should get his day in court - whether in the UK or US probably isn't all that important - but if he goes to jail at all it should be for no more than a few months, or some time commensurate with a minor offence.