Where is Gary Mckinnon? (NASA Hacker)

I just found a news article about Gary Mckinnon, most of you will have heard of him hacking into Nasa and claiming he found some very interesting info...McKinnon BBC Interview

Is he still awaiting the outcome of his extradition appeal? i cant find any info on him after this point in May 2006.

Why would he be sentenced to up to 70 yrs? where paedophiles and murderers hardly ever get that amount of time? do the US Gov.t know he is onto something and feel the need to surpress him for as long as possible?

The interview ive linked to above seems convincing, who else believes what he says?

EDIT - I just found this. i was a bit hasty Free Gary

I hope he wins his appeal!

[edit on 26-2-2007 by fiftyfifty]

No, I think he got into a honey pot and then made a big deal out of it publicly, so they're making an example out of him.

Several agencies run honeypots. You can't stumble into them without doing some active poking.

For example, DOE runs a few where they sell nuclear bomb parts. Specifically, there are sites selling bomb-grade Li6D, slappers, gas-triggered switches and the like. But you can't find the stuff on Google. There are sites that sell legitimate research products that are similar. You have to go to that site and do something overt, like trying URLs manually to find the page where the Li6D is sold. There is no direct link from a 'real' page on the site.

Once on the "hidden" page you can buy the stuff on a credit card.

People try it every week, which seems pretty stupid to me, but whatever.

I don't know how often someone actually gets more than a pointed phone call, but I do know one set of would-be terrorists bought some gas-triggered switches. They got some nonfunctional ones, delivered by a FBI guy in a UPS suit.

wow, ive never heard of that. That could be the case then. I wouldn't have thought the internet would be a safe place for any intelligent person to try something like that really.

It is worrying though if what he did is genuine and it is really that easy to hack into government organisations :S

You can get the current news on Gary here

Gary McKinnon News

This is fairly fresh...

www.scmagazine.com...:Kati [email protected]

Well, it really isn't all that easy.

The open NIPR netted systems don't have classified information on them.

The DISA guys regularly set up honeynets and honeypots to see who's trying to get in. The comment about seeing the same hackers logged in all the time and no-one ever stopping them is pretty par for the course. Some of the 'hackers' were most likely DISA guys.

They make up all sorts of crap to stick out there. The various stories tell them which honey pot you were in.

There's similar traps on JWICS for the folk with clearances surfing where they shouldn't be. It's one reason I don't poke around randomly.

Thanks guys,

Tom i have no idea what any of those abbreviations mean NIPR?
DISA? JWICS?

Its GMAGDH (given me a god damn headache)

Originally posted by Tom Bedlam
No, I think he got into a honey pot and then made a big deal out of it publicly, so they're making an example out of him.

Just out of curiosity, do you think NASA would really put up a honey pot with such sensational material as airbrushed UFO's and "Non-Terrestrial Officers"? It seems like they work really hard to stay away from things, truth or otherwise. I think Gary McKinnon is probably full of it and got into something much more mundane. When asked if he had proof of one of the more extraordinary claims, he said that he was stoned and forgot to make a copy of the information. That alone takes a lot of credibility out of his story. As for the quest question of why is he being extradited and facing up to 70 years -- He picked a very bad time to do his exploring, between 2001 and 2002. In the eyes of the United States, he is a terrorist, plain and simple.

BTW, for those not familiar with the term "honeypot":

From Wikipedia

In computer terminology, a honeypot is a trap set to detect, deflect or in some manner counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems. Generally it consists of a computer, data or a network site that appears to be part of a network but which is actually isolated, (un)protected and monitored, and which seems to contain information or a resource that would be of value to attackers.

[edit on 26-2-2007 by Rotoplooker]

Originally posted by Rotoplooker

Just out of curiosity, do you think NASA would really put up a honey pot with such sensational material as airbrushed UFO's and "Non-Terrestrial Officers"? It seems like they work really hard to stay away from things, truth or otherwise. I think Gary McKinnon is probably full of it and got into something much more mundane. When asked if he had proof of one of the more extraordinary claims, he said that he was stoned and forgot to make a copy of the information. That alone takes a lot of credibility out of his story.

You have to ask yourself why NASA would have posting lists of 'non terrestrial officers' at all. They are not military. Space Command might, but wouldn't have lists of Naval officers, they'd have AF or SPADOCs.

I've heard them describe putting out all sorts of crap, such as the "truth about Kennedy" and so on.

50/50

NIPRnet is the unprotected military net. It can be gotten into by civilians, but you're not allowed to gateway to it from a secure system or put any sort of classified material on it.

JWICS is the net with TS/SCI level data. Pictures of the Daedalus or lists of personnel assigned to the "off world colonies" or what have you would be on a JWICS sort of net, but I don't think even JWICS would have that.

It's sort of like the records for SOCOM personnel, the goodies are not on a network that's connected to the Internet. They're on a separated net, not on JWICS, that you have to be on physically at MacDill. Or on paper. But you can't hack it because the system's not connected.

If you have the SOCOM net physically separated, I can't imagine posting your "non terrestrial officer" orders on farking NIPR.

DISA are the guys at the Defense Information Systems Agency, they set up and maintain most of the military stuff (www.disa.mil).

Uh oh...

I think my mind's gone into acronym freeze....

SOS.....

I thought, in particlular, Gary was running a script that looked for blank or default passwords, and he found thousands of computers with such blank passwords. That's what I heard from some CS profs, anyway, if I'm not mistaken.

Doubt they were all honeypots.

THe article I just read said he was charged with breaking into 100 computers at various institutions.

The question is, what did he see about space programs?. All honeypot material?

Personally, it seems more likely that he randomly found poorly protected computers, as opposed to a collection of honeypots. But if all of the incriminating information came from a single computer, then I suppose it could have been an elaborate honeypot.

However, I am not going to buy that explanation at face value.

[edit on 26-2-2007 by Ectoterrestrial]

My point though, is that blank passwords or no, he couldn't get into a SIPRnet or JWICS server, and classified info is not stored on NIPRnet servers.

If he had said he had gotten it from university machines or corporate machines where the uni or company was doing military contract work, that might be plausible.

But you wouldn't keep that sort of thing on a civilian internet server.

Originally posted by Tom Bedlam
My point though, is that blank passwords or no, he couldn't get into a SIPRnet or JWICS server, and classified info is not stored on NIPRnet servers.

If he had said he had gotten it from university machines or corporate machines where the uni or company was doing military contract work, that might be plausible.

But you wouldn't keep that sort of thing on a civilian internet server.

Not sure the point.

It seems that you are implying that he found nothing...or rather that he found information that was purposely placed as misinformation?

The point 'appears' to be that the government is embarrassed for their lack of security - cant even set a password - so they are finger pointing, instead of taking blame.

The whole thing is rather interesting.

And the point about NASA not being military and having nothing to do with the Navy...seems that recently two of the "Navy pilot astronauts" for NASA was in the news. So Navy isn't to distant from NASA after all.

Oh, saw your blurb under your name in 'location': yes, indeed pensacola is beautiful...well the beach that is.

Peace

dAlen

Originally posted by dAlen

And the point about NASA not being military and having nothing to do with the Navy...seems that recently two of the "Navy pilot astronauts" for NASA was in the news. So Navy isn't to distant from NASA after all.

So...NASA using military pilots somehow implies to you that their servers should have super-secret Navy base staffing rosters on them?

NASA loves to use test pilots from the Navy and Air Force.

Sure, but that doesn't mean that NASA servers therefore have Navy (or any other service branch) confidential data on them.

Originally posted by Tom BedlamSo...NASA using military pilots somehow implies to you that their servers should have super-secret Navy base staffing rosters on them?

My point Tom is simply this...I dont get your angle on the whole issue.
Not that it matters...people often cross past each other when 'communicating'.

My point is simply that this is not really a conspiracy...the government is trying to 'take' him down.
The BBC did a whole write up and interview covering the whole ordeal.

Who cares who has whose rosters...obviously he upset someone.
I dont buy the theory, that it seems you implied that its just 'fake info' put there by the gov. Why waste their time putting up info on aliens.

But anyway

Peace

dAlen

Originally posted by Tom Bedlam
Sure, but that doesn't mean that NASA servers therefore have Navy (or any other service branch) confidential data on them.

And it doesnt mean they dont.
Again, this really isnt about conspiracy...prime time news.

Gov. never denied what he said.

And again...false info...and for who to find...kind of pointless.

Peace

dAlen

I think what Tom is saying is there are specific "intranets" in operation that are disconnected and self sustaining. With this being the case there is no way to hack into it from outside. You would have to be physically on site.

Very sensitive information is probably stored on small intranets but that does'nt necessarily mean they don't periodically connect them to the internet for unknown reasons. If a hacker is good enough and happens to stumble upon an unprotected network at the right time I guess anything is possible!

And the fact the USA wants him so bad is suspicious in itself! Perhaps they are interested in "damage control" so that he won't share his discovery with other hackers.

I don't think he will go to jail even if convicted unless he is put into solitary confinement. I don't think the government would want other prisoners knowing what he is in for!

Either that or he might be offered a nice job. I think the second option is probably more feasible!