UK hacker extradition appeal hearing starts
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(InfoWorld) - Lawyers for a British computer hacker started an appeal in London High Court Tuesday to block their client's extradition to the U.S. Gary McKinnon, of London, isÂ accused of deleting dataÂ and illegally accessing information on 97 U.S. military and NASA computers between February 2001 and March 2002. He's been charged in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. McKinnon, who did not show up in court, could face up to 60 years in prison, said his attorney, Edmund Lawson. British authorities declined to prosecute McKinnon and the U.S. sought to extradite him. He challenged the extradition order in Bow Street Magistrates Court in May 2006. His attorney contended that since U.S. authorities allege McKinnon disrupted critical military networks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he could be held as an enemy combatant and subjected to inhuman treatment. The judge rejected the argument, and the U.K. Home Secretary John Reid subsequentlyÂ approved an extradition order. The appeal hearing will continue Wednesday in London High Court. U.S. authorities allege one of McKinnon's hacking sessions deleted files from computers at the U.S. Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey, causing the shutdown of 300 computers at a critical time. McKinnon freely admits to hacking but contends he never damaged the targeted computers and merely did research on UFOs. He used a program called "RemotelyAnywhere" to control other computers, accessing administrator accounts and gaining passwords, according to British court documents. Most of his hacking occurred before office hours in the U.S.Â McKinnon's undoingÂ came after he mistimed one of his probes, and a user cut McKinnon's connection after noticing the mouse pointer moving around on the screen. Â
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The extradition of three former NatWest bankers, being sought by US prosecutors from the Enron Task Force, would have &quot;frightening consequences&quot; for the British legal system, a court heard yesterday.
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Among the more than 150 cybercrime arrests and convictions announced Thursday by the Department of Justice was an original: the nation&#39;s first case alleging denial of service attacks against competitors to knock them offline.
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Lawyers for Islamist cleric Abu Hamza, who is wanted in the United States on terror charges, have lodged an appeal against his extradition from Britain, they said Wednesday.
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U.K. prosecutors have received guidance on interpreting amendments to a&#160;computer crime law&#160;that introduce stronger penalties for computer hacking.A six-page document published on Monday by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) gives prosecutors pointers for handling offenses under soon-to-change provisions of the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) of 1990.The amendments were passed into law in November 2006 but have not yet come into force. The changes are designed to strengthen the government&#39;s ability to prosecute and punish hackers, and increase penalties for accessing systems without authorization.Computer security professionals have expressed concern&#160;about the drafting of the changes, however.The most-discussed change, contained in Section 3A of the CMA, makes it illegal for someone to create an application that is &quot;likely&quot; to be used for hacking. But the precise definition of &quot;likely&quot; has prompted fears the law could potentially target those undertaking activities such as penetration testing.According to the CPS document, prosecutors should look at what an application does and who its creator thought would use it. Conditions to consider would be whether the hacking tool was given to a &quot;closed and vetted list of IT security professionals or was posted openly,&quot; CPS said.Prosecutors should also find out whether the tool has a legitimate purpose, if it has a large installation base and whether it&#39;s commercially sold.Some applications will &quot;have a dual use, and prosecutors need to ascertain that the subject has a criminal intent,&quot; CPS said. Possession of a program is not enough to prosecute, it said.Computer security researchers &quot;might find some comfort in this guidance&quot; since criminal intent must be demonstrated, said Struan Robertson, senior associate with law firm Pinsent Masons.The guidance is generally acceptable, wrote Richard Clayton, a computer scientist at the University of Cambridge, on his blog. But using the criterion of whether a hacking program is available for sale ignores the fact that much software is free, Clayton said.On another issue, the document also clarifies what constitutes unauthorized access to a computer, a crime under Section 1 of the amended CMA. The defendant must know that the intended access wasn&#39;t permitted, and prosecutors must show that the person intended to improperly access information from the computer.&#160;
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A UK-based former boss at Peregrine Systems will be extradited to the US on Thursday to face fraud charges.
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Day one of a two-day hearing focuses on whether the software juggernaut should have to share information with rivals.
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Scotland's High Court must hear a new appeal by Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi against his conviction for the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing, an independent review board said on Thursday.
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Hacking contest renews the debate over 'responsible disclosure' of system holes.
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One of the eight Britons charged with plotting terrorist outrages in Britain and the United States has appeared in court.
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Haxploitation The plight of accused Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon has become the subject of a radio play due to air on the UK's Radio 4 on Wednesday afternoon.The play, due to air at 2.15pm will tell the story of McKinnon's fight against extradition to the US.â¦
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Three men charged under Britain's anti-terrorism laws on suspicion of seeking to obtain radioactive material to make a nuclear device made a brief first appearance Saturday before a London court.
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Three former NatWest bankers are due in a UK court to face an extradition hearing in connection with the collapsed energy giant Enron.
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One of three British residents newly returned from the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay was ordered Thursday to face an extradition hearing for allegedly belonging to an al-Qaida terrorist cell in Spain.
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Nine foreign terror suspects held indefinitely without charge in Britain will challenge their detention before the country&#39;s highest court today.
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Britain's top police officer is calling for phone-tap evidence to be used in court cases involving terror suspects.
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Lawmakers are to make a 11th-hour effort to get the government to stall the extradition of three British bankers who face trial in the United States for an Enron-related fraud allegedly committed in Britain.