brett.jenkins

Gary McKinnon

This case makes me so angry, and this is why…

A UFO fanatic who hacked into top secret US military computers today appealed to the Home Secretary to stop his extradition after losing a last-ditch legal appeal.

Gary McKinnon is due to be extradited to the United States within two weeks and faces up to 80 years in prison in a maximum-security prison if found guilty of computer fraud…

…Mr McKinnon is being extradited under the controversial legislation which allows the American authorities to extradite British citizens without any need to provide evidence proving their case.

Although the Extradition Act 2003 was originally intended to expedite requests in terrorism cases, it has instead been used mainly in cases of other alleged offences. The US Senate refused to ratify the treaty, meaning that Britain stilll needs a higher burden of proof to extradite Americans.

Source: Times Online

Why do we get walked on by the Americans? The USA can extradite British nationals without proof, while we can’t do the same. Plus the crime was committed in the UK, the guy did no damage, and he’s already served his sentence in the UK.

OK, I’m not defending the guy, he shouldn’t have hacked into USA Military computers, that was stupid. He isn’t really worthy of being called a hacker either as he just downloaded some scripts which searched their PC’s for blank passwords, which anyone could do. I think the main reason why the USA wants to extradite him and trial him is because they are embarrassed and want to make a show of him. McKinnon has stated that he thinks it’s because the US Government want to silence him after some of the things he has accessed, which may be a possibility depending on what he has claimed to have read.

Either way, this case is scary for us British citizens. The USA can claim any of us, without proof, if they wish to do so, and it doesn’t seem that the British Government even puts up a fight.

It’s a sad case of affairs…

Photo by W.Sharp Licensed under the Creative Commons 2.5 License

This is an interesting way to attract younger voters:

Xbox Live in youth voting drive

Americans will soon be able to use Xbox Live to register to vote in the November presidential elections.

Microsoft has signed a partnership with activist group Rock The Vote to boost interest in the upcoming election among young people.

As part of the tie-up Xbox Live members will also be able to take part in polls to gauge their voting intentions.

A forum on Xbox Live will also be used to gather opinions from gamers that will be shared with candidates.

Party politics

“To realise our goal of registering two million young Americans by this fall, we need to go where young Americans are,” said Heather Smith, executive director of Rock the Vote, in a statement. “There’s no doubt in our minds that many are on Xbox 360 and Xbox Live.”

Microsoft said that the Rock The Vote campaign to use Xbox Live would begin on 25 August.

In the past Rock The Vote has also worked with MySpace to encourage bands that promote their music via the social networking site to get fans to register to vote.

Through the partnership with Rock The Vote, Microsoft is also planning to have a presence at the Republican and Democrat party conventions to educate politicians about it and its members views.

Some aspects of Xbox Live are free but for a monthly fee members can take on other console owners in online games. In the UK the annual fee for the service is £39.99.

In May 2008 Microsoft announced that it had 12 million subscribers for Xbox Live spread across 26 countries

Will this work? Well, I don’t think it will. People playing on an xbox, won’t suddenly decide to register to vote… will they? However time will tell, it will be interesting to see how this ends up.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7576956.stm

More data lost

Now the UK Government has lost more data…

The memory stick contained un-encrypted details about [sic] 10,000 prolific offenders as well as names, dates of births and some release date of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales – and 33,000 records from the police national computer.

This is an absolute farce, encrypted data was supplied to this external contractor for the government, and then data was stored in an unencrypted form on a memory stick, and now that memory stick has been ‘mis-laid’. Firstly storing that kind of data in an unencrypted format is ridiculous. The person who did that should be fired.

The Government are quick to try and disassociate themselves with the leak, by blaming it all on the external contractor. This doesn’t change the fact that the Government are ultimately responsible, and it asks the question can the Government be trusted with our personal data? As I posted the other day, the Government want to create a database of all UK citizens calls, emails and Internet logs (http://www.brettjenkins.co.uk/blog/2008/08/20/uk-government-plans-spy-database/). Even if that law is passed, the Government clearly can not be trusted to protect that data!

All the data lost so far:

Nov 2007: 25m people’s child benefit details, held on two discs
Dec 2007: 7,685 Northern Ireland drivers’ details
Dec 2007: 3m learner drivers’ details lost in US
Jan 2008: 600,000 people’s details lost on Navy officer’s stolen laptop
June 2008: Six laptops holding 20,000 patients’ details stolen from hospital
July 2008: MoD reveals 658 laptops stolen in four years

I wonder who’s data the Government will lose next? The saga continues…

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7575989.stm (That Jacqui Smith interview is a must watch, how many times can she say an external contractor in one interview?)

This is very scary, and hopefully this will fall through and not be implemented:

The government has plans to create a massive database that will store all phone calls, emails, and internet logs of all UK citizens. The information can be stored for as long as 2 years.

The database will take time to create, but there are trials and tests set in place with pre-determined people.

This is a feasible solution to solving criminal cases, and lowering crime rates, however, many will see it as a very large invasion of privacy.

UK Home Office minister, Lord West, noted:
“It is a cross-government program, led by the Home Office, to ensure that our capability to lawfully intercept and exploit data when fighting crime and terrorism is not lost.”

http://neowin.net/news/main/08/08/20/uk-to-invest-in-massive-spy-database

It is unacceptable that the UK government would even be allowed to do this, this is a serious invasion of privacy. I’ll be watching this story with great interest.