Annemiek's weblog

A quick entry in between.
At the moment I am looking at legal opportunities/problems regarding cyber security and something interesting popped up on a Dutch news site. (English article)

London has approved the extradition of a Scottish hacker, McKinnon, to the US. It has taken 7 years and many appeals before the final decision was made. It was stated that the United Kingdom could not refuse extradition to the US based upon existing treaties between the two.
According to the 2nd article:

”..[he] is accused of hacking into 97 United States military and NASA computers in 2001 and 2002, using the name ‘Solo’. The computer networks he is accused of hacking include networks owned by NASA, the US Army, US Navy, Department of Defense, and the US Air Force.”

According to the hacker himself he was looking for prove of aliens (100% sanity?- I wonder). The damage done was around US$700,000 and McKinnon can now face a sentence of 70 years in the US for his hacking.

If the treaties talked about would not exist, the hacker would have likely faced trial in the United Kingdom. Well-managed relations with other nations are thus of high importance for the US, if it wants to convict hackers from other nations in this country. Would it set a good example for international cooperation?