LONDON (Reuters) -A British computer expert lost his appeal on Wednesday againstextradition to the United States where he is accused of "the biggestmilitary hack of all time" and could face up to 70 years in prison.
Gary McKinnon was arrested in 2002 after U.S. prosecutors chargedhim with illegally accessing computers, including the Pentagon, U.S.army, navy and NASA systems, and causing $700,000 worth of damage.
McKinnon told Reuters in 2006 he was just a computer nerd who wantedto find out whether aliens really existed and became obsessed withtrawling large military networks for proof.
However, Britain’s highest court, the House of Lords, ruled thegravity of the charges should not be understated and they would carry amaximum life sentence under English law. It turned down his appealagainst extradition.
McKinnon’s lawyers had argued that sending him to the United Stateswould breach his human rights, be an abuse of the English court processand should be barred as his extradition was sought "for the purpose ofprosecuting him on account of his nationality or political opinions".
A district court ruled in May 2006 that he should be extradited, adecision upheld at London’s High Court in April 2007. But in Octoberthree of Britain’s top judges gave McKinnon permission to take his caseto the House of Lords.
If found guilty in the United States, McKinnon could face up to 70 years in prison and fines of up to $1.75 million.
Using his own computer at home in London, McKinnon hacked into 97computers belonging to and used by the U.S. government between February2001 and March 2002.
McKinnon is accused of causing the entire U.S. Army’s MilitaryDistrict of Washington network of more than 2,000 computers to be shutdown for 24 hours.
Using a limited 56K dial-up modem and the hacking name "Solo" hefound many U.S. security systems used an insecure Microsoft Windowsprogram with no password protection.
He then bought off-the-shelf software and scanned military networks,saying he found expert testimonies from senior figures reporting thattechnology obtained from extra-terrestrials did exist.
At the time of his indictment, Paul McNulty, U.S. Attorney for theEastern District of Virginia, said: "Mr. McKinnon is charged with thebiggest military computer hack of all time."
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