British hacker who broke into Pentagon and NASA computers to find info on UFOs facing extradition to the US

[Jenna]

Gary McKinnon, the hacker who broke into Pentagon and NASA computers, was at risk of suicide Friday after losing an effort to fight extradition to the United States, his attorney said.
Gary McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp, fears for her son's life after the Supreme Court decision.

"This is the wholesale destruction and bullying of a small individual by the United States and now our own government," attorney Karen Todner said in a statement.

McKinnon's mother Janis Sharp described her son as "suicidal."

The British government did not respond.

McKinnon, a British citizen, has admitted breaking the law and intentionally gaining unauthorized access to U.S. government computers.

The U.S. government says McKinnon carried out the biggest military computer hacking of all time, accessing 97 computers from his home in London for a year starting in March 2001, and costing the government about $1 million. U.S. authorities want him extradited to face trial in the United States.

McKinnon, currently free on bail in England, has said he was simply doing research to find out whether the U.S. government was covering up the existence of UFOs.

McKinnon bases his case partly on the fact that he has Asperger's syndrome, a type of autism.

More here: Pentagon hacker 'suicidal' following U.S. 'bullying' - CNN.com

[TXCharlie]

It's about time someone said this about the Government:

Except for web sites which are intended to be accessed by the general public or databases containing public information, there really shouldn't be any government computers connected to the public Internet.

Of course, the hacker did break the law, but I wonder how many of those computers should have been exposed to the public internet in the first place?

If he actually broke into any computers with non-public info on them, or if he could alter any data, then that's a failing of Big Brother's IT department. At the very least, it should require an encrypted VPN connection to directly access ANY Government computer except for a public web site or a read-only public database, and the network should be totally isolated from the internet if any secret or critical information is on the computers.