In March 2002, the whole world learned that the US military network had been subjected to numerous hacker attacks. All the newspapers and TV reported that a hacker named Solo had hacked into hundreds of military computers. Nobody knew the name of the "unrecognized genius" who disabled the computers of the most impregnable and protected department. They started talking about Gary McKinnon when the US charged the guy with a life sentence.
How did it all start?
Gary was charged with deliberately hacking into hundreds of military computers over the course of 13 months, from February 2001 to March 2002, using the name Solo.
McKinnon did not admit that he caused the system to fail. He said that he could possibly disable one computer with his actions. But until official evidence is presented, he will not agree with this accusation.
US authorities saidthat Gary McKinnon is a hacker who downplays his abilities. A senior military officer at the Pentagon said they had suffered severe damage as a result of his actions. He confidently stated that this was not a harmless incident, but an organized attack on US computer systems. His actions are equivalent to terrorism.
What was he accused of?
US military claims it caused $800,000 (£550,000) in damage and left 300 computers unusable in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
He was accused of using his computer skills to access 53 US Army servers, including those used for national defense and security. And 26 US Navy computers, including NWS Earle, which is responsible for resupplying munitions and supplies for the Atlantic fleet. "Hacking 16 NASA computers and one US Department of Defense computer," he was also charged with these charges. Gary McKinnon allegedly stole 950 passwords and deleted NWS Earle files in New Jersey.
Mark Summers, a spokesman for the US government, told a London court that the McKinnon hack was "deliberate and calculated to influence and influence the US government through intimidation and coercion."
First Gary McKinnon, a British hacker, was arrested on March 19, 2002 and questioned. In August of the same year, he was heard by the British Committee on Safety. In November, the federal court for the District of Virginia indicted seven crimes, each with a potential ten-year sentence. ATin total, he faced 70 years in prison.
What really happened?
Between 1999 and 2002, McKinnon broke into the world's most secure computer systems from his London apartment. Using the computer language Perl and a cheap PC, Gary searched an American database for computers that weren't password protected. “I could scan 65,000 cars in less than nine minutes,” he says.
Gary discovered unprotected systems operated by the US Army, Navy, Pentagon and NASA. McKinnon, who describes himself as a "clumsy computer nerd", used his computer expertise to hack. "Because the US does not disclose full information about aliens," claims Gary McKinnon.
Biography and McKinnon's family
Gary's parents have known each other since childhood. They lived in the largest city in Scotland - Glasgow. At fifteen, Janice, the mother of a computer genius, realized that she had fallen hopelessly in love with Charlie McKinnon. He was the most caring and kind person she had ever known. A big fan of Elvis, he sang beautifully himself. Charlie performed in pubs. Janice worked in the store.
Bought her first apartment when she was fifteen years old. They decided to get married right after Janice's sixteenth birthday. In Scotland, early marriage is prohibited. The minister of the church, where they turned to legitimize their relationship, called Janice's parents to find out if they knew that their daughter was getting married. The parents said thatknow her young man very well. Charlie is a wonderful guy and they are not against marriage. So the young got married.
A year later, in 1966, Gary was born. Janice was then 17 years old. When she found out that she was expecting a baby, her worldview as a very young girl immediately changed. She really wanted children. But when I walked in the park and saw young mothers walking there with three or even four babies, I firmly decided that she would have one child.
Gary was five years old when his parents divorced. Charlie was a wonderful father, says Jane. Probably the reason for the breakup of the family was that many early marriages are doomed to this. When Gary was six, Janice met Wilson. In 1972 the family moved to London. They are both musicians, and there were more opportunities for a career here. Janice and Wilson got married in 1974.
But Gary missed his father a lot. Eventually Charlie came to London to work. Gary was happy. Charlie met his second wife in London. He has three sons and a daughter. But Gary has always been an important part of his life. He has a great relationship with his father, brothers and sister.
Gary's childhood
Gary McKinnon was born a strong, he althy baby. But he didn't want to eat. Janice was very worried about this. Then everything got better. At 10 months, the baby got up on his own in the crib, looked at his parents and clearly said: "Dad, mom." From that moment on, he quickly began to learn to speak.
Gary graduated from primary school in London. He studied reluctantly, because heit was boring. He learned to read early, at the age of 3. In addition, he attended Dunard Street School in Glasgow. He felt that he did not fit into the new school and preferred the company of adults. He liked to spend time at home. Perhaps he was complex because of his Scottish accent. But Janice noticed that her son had communication problems. So they did everything they could to keep the child from withdrawing.
Gary loved music, but was not seriously interested in playing any of the musical instruments. When he was seven years old, Jane and Wilson, their stepfather, recorded a song. Gary was in another room "arguing" with the piano. Suddenly wonderful classical music was heard. Parents looked into the room and saw Gary playing the piano enthusiastically. They were delighted, found a music teacher and bought their son a white piano.
Gary McKinnon sings beautifully, he was in the band Kids & Co, which had to leave because of his inability to adapt and follow the instructions of mentors.
At Christmas, Gary's parents bought Gary's first computer. He was simply fascinated by him, sat behind him all day. Then he was 14 years old. While most teenagers used the computer to play games, it created graphics and programs.
Then, after watching the 1983 movie War Games, in which a "nerd" hacker hacks into the Pentagon's computer network, Gary McKinnon began looking for evidence of his other passion, UFOs. Although Gary himself claims that Hugo Cornwell's book The Hacker's Handbook inspired him to this search.
How did the UFO craze come about?
Wilson (Janice's second husband) lived in Bonnybridge, which is one of the top ten places where UFOs are most often observed. And Gary showed great interest in it.
In the late 1990s, Gary McKinnon joined the Disclosure Project, an online community of UFO experts. They collected more than 200 testimonies, some of them from people who served in the US military. They all confirm that aliens exist.
“It wasn't just about little green men and flying saucers,” McKinnon says. “I believe there are spaceships that the public doesn't know about.”
McKinnon's search for UFO files on US computers has become an obsession.
What did it lead to?
It would seem that such a simple reason as the search for a UFO, led to unpredictable consequences. For ten years, Gary McKinnon has become an unwanted focus of Anglo-American diplomatic relations.
Paul J. McNulty, then U. S. Attorney in Virginia, announced that Harry had been charged in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. At the same time, he warned that the United States intended to demand his extradition.
Two years later, the US government filed an extradition request for Gary, and on June 7, 2005, he was arrested. Extradition to the United States seemed inevitable. And Gary declared that he would kill himself to counter the unfair accusation.
And the great battle of a mother for her only son began. Janice Sharp spent the next ten years inrelentless battle to keep Gary from being extradited. The US judiciary has the power of the greatest power in the world. But she could not resist the mother's struggle for her son.
In October 2012, Janice finally won. It was an impressive victory. The story of Gary McKinnon is also a true story of the struggle of a mother who wants to save her son from a life behind bars.
Legal Battle
Proposed sequence of events:
- 2002 March: Gary McKinnon (pictured above) arrested by British police.
- 2002, October: Gary is indicted in the US states of Virginia and New Jersey on seven counts of computer crimes.
- 2005: US authorities begin extradition process.
- 2006 May: Magistrates rule that Mr McKinnon should be extradited.
- 2006 July: Home Secretary John Reid signs an extradition order for Mr. McKinnon to the US.
- 2007 April: High Court in London rejects Mr McKinnon's extradition lawsuit.
- 2008 July: McKinnon may be extradited to the US by decision of the Lord Justices.
- 2008, August: The European Court of Human Rights said it would not prevent the extradition of the hacker.
- 2008 August: McKinnon diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome.
- 2008 October: Home Secretary Jacques Smith approves extradition.
- 2009 February: Crown Prosecution Service refuses to file charges against Mr McKinnon in the UK as an alternativeUS charges.
- 2009 October: Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he would look into new medical evidence.
- 2010 May: Coalition is re-elected and new home secretary Theresa May promises to look at his case again.
- 2011 May: Barack Obama, on a state visit to the UK, said he would "respect" the UK legal process.
- 2012 July: Gary refuses new medical tests.
- 2012 October: Home Secretary Theresa May says McKinnon will not be extradited.
- 2012 December: Crown prosecutors announced that McKinnon would not be charged with any crimes.
McKinnon today
Gary was under house arrest for a long time while the proceedings were ongoing. In addition to the fact that he had to report every day to the police and spend the night at home, he was forbidden to use a computer with Internet access.
In fact, Gary McKinnon, already known to many, was left without a job. The age and education of the “nerd hacker” also influenced this to some extent. At that time he was about forty years old. He entered the university, but did not graduate. After school he worked as a hairdresser. On the advice of friends, I took programming courses. He worked as a system administrator, performed contract work related to computer technology and programming. Therefore, for a long time I could not find a job, because everywhere you need the Internet.
Now Gary is engagedWebsite SEO optimization. He has his own page, where he offers programming, creation and support of Internet resources, coding and search engine optimization.
Gary's mother, Janice Sharp, wrote the book Saving Gary McKinnon: A Mother's Story, where she talks about herself, her family, and Gary. In it, she thanks everyone who has been with them all this time. She describes in detail what they had to go through and endure from the very minute when on March 19, 2002, the phone rang in her apartment, and her son told her that he had been arrested. Then she said, “We will fight.”
