Hacking for UFOs and fighting for his life. Who is Gary McKinnon? | NordVPN

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Gary Mckinnon is a Glasgow-born hacker who committed the biggest US military hack in the universe. From searching for UFOs to a ten-year legal battle for freedom, here’s the story of Gary Mckinnon.

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Contents:
00:00 Intro
00:11 Gary McKinnons’ childhood
00:28 Gary McKinnons’ first hacks
01:01 Garry discovers UFO photographs
01:50 Gary McKinnon faces 70-year prison sentence
02:00 Garry is diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome
02:18 Theresa May blocks Garry's extradition

Snooping for UFOs dragged Gary McKinnon into a universe of trouble. In 2002, he was charged with the biggest US military hack in the universe.

In the early 70s, young Gary with his mother moved to London from Glasgow. Gary's stepfather was a science fiction geek and UFO buff. One thing led to another, and Gary was thrown into the world of science fiction head-on, moving to hacking later as he was growing up.

He successfully hacked into Oxford university’s network. To his amusement, many of the government's administration computers had no passwords. Soon he collected an impressive portfolio of hacks. He hacked into the computers of NASA, the US Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and even the Department of Defense. Fun fact, he did it sitting on a couch in his girlfriend's aunty’s living room.

Gary had a good sense of humor, so occasionally he left cheerful messages for administrators on their computer desktops. Statements like: "The secret government is blah blah blah."

One day he hit the jackpot as he stumbled on unedited satellite images of, as he said: "out-of-this-world flying objects." He failed to download the photos since they were too big, and his dial-up 56k modem was too slow. He even found Excel spreadsheets named "non-terrestrial officers" with US air force personnel names that didn't exist anywhere.

But soon afterwards, things went downhill. He was accused of hacking into 97 US military and NASA computers. The calculated damage was around 700,000 dollars for crashing computers, deleting crucial files, and paralyzing the systems shortly after the 9/11 attack - the worst timing possible. To his surprise, he faced 70 years in prison if extradited.

Now, his long journey to freedom began. He was losing court hearing after court hearing for several years, and extradition crept upon him. But then, one day, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, which explained his obsessive hacking acts. People started protesting against extradition. Even Pink Floyd lead singer David Gilmour recorded a song with Gary on vocals. Nothing worked until one particular lady stepped in.

Yes, Theresa May blocked his extradition. So after a decade of fears and tears, Gary McKinnon was a free man again. Still, to this day, we don't know if what Gary found in the US government's computers is true, but one thing is for sure: their security system was way behind!

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📌OUR SOCIAL MEDIA 📱
#GaryMcKinnon #Cybercrime #NordVPN

[Nordvpn]

How hard would it be to hack the US military today? 🧐 
Enhance your online security with NordVPN 🛡 

[za.]

My wife is a lawyer, and she got invited to a party. I went as her plus one. I started talking to this chap because I was in IT. He was the lawyer representing Gary. He told me some fascinating stuff. My favourite was that the government knew somebody was hacking in and left a honeypot program to monitor the intruder. Gary found the program, left them comments in the code on how to improve the program. That takes some stones and a sense if humour.

[anthonygoodwin]

Never wouldve thought that out of all companies, @NordVPN would shed light on a very important subject in humanity. Props nord thats why i use you

[christiehowe]

Vindicated at the UAP Disclosure conference

[Makaveli]

Exact things people are discussing today around these topics is exactly what he said he saw. Crazy

[CrawlingChaos]

Gary McKinnon was right, after all xD

[terablanket]

He said in an interview "it was more their stupidity than my genius, there was no genius" referencing the absence of passwords on US military and NASA computers. To this day he is still not claiming to be a "genius hacker". Dude likes computers and noticed that NASA had no passwords on their PCs LOL

[stressedworried]

There was a long interview he did on some weird tv show back then going in to detail about it all. It was in you tube.. but no anymore?? Anyone know where to find it??

[bubblerings]

Liked for being short... With the facts..
Thank

[reispedro]

So the man talk and showed the documents.. and humans are now in a worst situation.. Is this aliens to blame?

[frctl_]

My thoughts on Theresa May have now shone a little light 😅