Granny Hacks US Navy and NASA
Scalene | 29.08.2008 13:16 | Gender | Globalisation | Technology
An old granny who hacked into top-secret US military computers just minutes after learning how to send her first email appealed to the British Home Secretary yesterday to stop her extradition after losing a legal appeal.
Jane McKinnon, 103, is due to be extradited to the United States within two weeks and could face a sentence of up to 80 years in a maximum-security prison if found guilty.
She admits to having accessed 97 US Navy, Army, NASA and Pentagon computers in what has been described as “the biggest computer hack of all time”, but claims she was trying to book a cruise with SAGA, not NASA.
Mrs McKinnon, a retired tea-lady, claims she was looking for a trip around the Bahamas. The US Government says that she stole passwords, deleted files and left worrying search terms such as “where are the Cruises [Missiles] then?”
US prosecutors allege that the crone caused nearly $1 million in damage. The US military says that she rendered 300 cruise missile silos at a US Navy weapons station unusable immediately after the September 11 attacks.
Mrs McKinnon had become obsessed with a desire to go on holiday and believed that the US was the best place to book a jaunt around the Gulf of Mexico. She gave up her knitting and spent literally minutes hacking on the internet in search of bargains.
Believing she had got a on the USS New Jersey, she had in fact illegally entered 53 US Army computers and 26 US Navy computers, including those at US Naval Weapons Station Earle, which is responsible for replenishing munitions and supplies for the Atlantic Fleet.
Mark Summers, an official representing the US Government, said that Mrs McKinnon’s hacking was “intentional and calculated to influence and affect the US Government by intimidation and coercion”.
If extradited, Mrs McKinnon faces trial on eight charges of computer fraud. Each charge could carry a sentence of ten years in jail and a $250,000 fine. It is likely that she would receive a much lighter sentence and that, under a plea bargain offer, she would spend six to 12 seconds in a US jail before having a heart attack and dying.
When cross-examined at the House of Lords, Mrs McKinnon appeared unperturbed. “Where am I? I expect we’ll be embarking soon, won’t we? How long does it take to get the Bahamas … my old Vernon used to love going down the docks.”
McKinnon’s QC, Ms Todner, has said that the alleged offences had been committed on British soil and so she should be burnt as a witch in London. She also said that Mrs McKinnon had recently been found to have senile dementia and a black cat.
She admits to having accessed 97 US Navy, Army, NASA and Pentagon computers in what has been described as “the biggest computer hack of all time”, but claims she was trying to book a cruise with SAGA, not NASA.
Mrs McKinnon, a retired tea-lady, claims she was looking for a trip around the Bahamas. The US Government says that she stole passwords, deleted files and left worrying search terms such as “where are the Cruises [Missiles] then?”
US prosecutors allege that the crone caused nearly $1 million in damage. The US military says that she rendered 300 cruise missile silos at a US Navy weapons station unusable immediately after the September 11 attacks.
Mrs McKinnon had become obsessed with a desire to go on holiday and believed that the US was the best place to book a jaunt around the Gulf of Mexico. She gave up her knitting and spent literally minutes hacking on the internet in search of bargains.
Believing she had got a on the USS New Jersey, she had in fact illegally entered 53 US Army computers and 26 US Navy computers, including those at US Naval Weapons Station Earle, which is responsible for replenishing munitions and supplies for the Atlantic Fleet.
Mark Summers, an official representing the US Government, said that Mrs McKinnon’s hacking was “intentional and calculated to influence and affect the US Government by intimidation and coercion”.
If extradited, Mrs McKinnon faces trial on eight charges of computer fraud. Each charge could carry a sentence of ten years in jail and a $250,000 fine. It is likely that she would receive a much lighter sentence and that, under a plea bargain offer, she would spend six to 12 seconds in a US jail before having a heart attack and dying.
When cross-examined at the House of Lords, Mrs McKinnon appeared unperturbed. “Where am I? I expect we’ll be embarking soon, won’t we? How long does it take to get the Bahamas … my old Vernon used to love going down the docks.”
McKinnon’s QC, Ms Todner, has said that the alleged offences had been committed on British soil and so she should be burnt as a witch in London. She also said that Mrs McKinnon had recently been found to have senile dementia and a black cat.
Scalene
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