By Jo Best, 11 July 2005 15:47
NEWS The British man thought to have hacked into 53 US government agencies' computer systems has spoken out about his discoveries in Nasa's networks.
The 39-year-old from north London told The Guardian he initially started his hacking career when looking for evidence of a UFO cover-up. Using a software program, Gary McKinnon was able to discover senior network administrators who didn't use passwords.
"You get on to easy networks, like Support and Logistics, in order to exploit the trust relationship that military departments have between each other, and once you get on to an easy thing, you find out what networks they trust and then you hop and hop and hop, and eventually you think, 'That looks a bit more secretive'," McKinnon told The Guardian.
McKinnon said he was eventually able to access the US' Space Command network, where he found evidence of an extra terrestrial mission.
"I found a list of officers' names," he claims, "under the heading 'Non-Terrestrial Officers'... What I think it means is not earth-based. I found a list of 'fleet-to-fleet transfers' and a list of ship names. I looked them up. They weren't US Navy ships. What I saw made me believe they have some kind of spaceship, off-planet."
McKinnon, however, said he can't remember much about the project as he had been "smoking a lot of dope at the time".
The hacker has also denied that he had made Washington's computer system inoperable, although he did admit he may have deleted some government files by accidentally pressing the wrong key.
While McKinnon is facing the possibility of up to 70 years in jail, it seems Nasa has more to worry about than the British man known as 'Solo' in the hacking community.
McKinnon continued: "Once you're on the network, you can do a command called NetStat - Network Status - and it lists all the connections to that machine. There were hackers from Denmark, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Thailand... every night for the entire five to seven years I was doing this."
Comments
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1. anonymous
A pity he never printed out any of these 'conclusive' documents ...!
2. anonymous
Man smoking dope sees little green (or grey) men, ...hmmmm
3. anonymous
McKinnon, however, said he can't remember much about the project as he had been "smoking a lot of dope at the time". Perhaps that means the facts of what he read and what he thought he read have merged into his reality.
He probable stumbled onto a benign space exploration/shuttle mission.
4. anonymous
Well remember he was so high he was looking at these orbiting 'non terrestrial officers' from above
5. anonymous
Every night there were hackers from all those counties.... What no alien hackers?
6. anonymous
Why is NASA's network security so poor that a stoned script kiddie can break in?
7. Lee
Obviously none of the other people posting here have ever "had a puff" as they obviously all think it makes you hallucinate and see aliens!
Just because he liked a smoke doesn’t make him an idiot. I’m sure he's a lot smarter than all of you; could anyone of you hold a candle to the computer skills needed to hack in to the highest MOD files? I think not.
Or perhaps everyone is so narrow minded that they will use any excuse to discredit any possibility of their existence being the most highly evolved in the universe!
If the governments of the world can lie to us about the need for war and sell it to us all then I think they would be able to cover up contact with extra terrestrial life!
8. Brad
Or maybe the reason these machines were so easy to hack into is because NASA probably had some honeypots/honeynets set up -- basically fake machines/networks that keep "hackers" busy and entertained.
It's a good way for system/network admins to watch what the "bad guys" are up to and see what tools they're using -- all the while keeping the real networks more secure.
9. Adrian
I indulge in the odd spliff (or few) every now and then and have yet to see any evidence of Aliens/UFOs or any signs of conspiracy to cover up such evidence.
Which leads me to ask the question "does anyone know who his supplier is and can they put me in touch?"
10. [ASH]Merry_Prankster. UK
Pressed the wrong key?!
This guy has the skillz to get into a confidential NASA network and 'pressed the wrong key' to delete files.
Um, LGM seem more likely!
11. anonymous
Just because he was stoned that doesn't make him unintelligent. Forgetful prehaps, but if he gained access into US government computers, then surely elation, paranoia and other mind states would have set in, meaning he couldn't concentrate as easily as if he hadn't been stoned.
Don't discount everything he says just because he was stoned. Art, liking hacking, can be "zoned into" when stoned, meaning it's actually easier to presist in pursuing what you want to achieve.
12. anonymous
Rather than prosecute NASA should consider offering McKinnon the job of Head Of Network Security!
13. Deadlock
Five to Seven years?!?!
Which is it? Five, or Seven? Or Six?
Methinks the lad is just making it up for publicity; after all, the Off-Earth Fleet (or OEuF for short) isn't due for launch until, oh, 2010 to 2012; ish.
14. Insane corn
its very easy to press the wrong key and when its irreversable yeah. i should know i admin all my families systems and wonder around finding ways past security systems without hacking(thisis very amusing) and well if any person who knows anything about computers -they are never completely secure, never.
15. anonymous
Gary should be awarded $700.000 for showing the glitzes the Nasa computers had.