UFO hacker is broken man, says family


Recommended Posts

A GLASGOW-BORN computer expert accused of hacking into American military systems is "distraught" as he awaits extradition to the US, his family and friends said yesterday.

The parents and girlfriend of Gary McKinnon, 42, joined supporters in London for a demonstration outside the Home Office, calling on the government to prevent him from being handed over to American authorities.

McKinnon, an unemployed systems analyst from north London, admits accessing 97 US military and Pentagon computers, but claimed he was looking for UFO files.

The US government accuses him of stealing passwords and deleting files.

McKinnon faces up to 70 years in prison if he is found guilty.

His partner, Lucy Clarke, 37, said: "He is a broken man ? he is distraught. The whole family has been living in terror."

His father, Charlie McKinnon, 63, who travelled from his Glasgow home, said: "I don't want him to go to America.

"There is no hope for him to face a fair trial ? they've made up their minds."

source

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/665786-ufo-hacker-is-broken-man-says-family/
Share on other sites

I bet he found some stuff that was so classified that the only way he'll never talk is if he's locked away. 70 years for hacking some crap computer systems with bad security, he should be working for them. the justice system today is some fus.

Of all the bad things people do, sneak-peeking into government UFO pictures is hardly a major crime.

He did nothing for money.

He did not help our 'enemies'.

Waste the tax-payers money on more important things and let this man alone.

His father, Charlie McKinnon, 63, who travelled from his Glasgow home, said: "I don't want him to go to America.

"There is no hope for him to face a fair trial ? they've made up their minds."

true or not, that's the perception the rest of the world has of the US. Maybe the whole terrorist thing didn't help much after all.

typical lethargic american government/legal system over this sorta thing. Bottom line is if he's extradited he's going to be demonized as a terrorist in the american legal systems eye and will be treated accordingly is what they're pointing out. He's admitted his crime and what he done but they are so mindless to the fact that they won't even allow him to do a justified sentence for it... they need to kill him behind bars for his crime like wtf is that about... then you can just see if he's extradited he won't get a fair trial because they are in their own country they can just fabricate evidence to their hearts content to try and prove it which is bullsh**... this sorta stuff that just hurts your head wondering wtf is this world coming to...

I think you are missing the point here.. HE HACKED into Government computers.. I don't give a rats a$$ if he was looking for UFO's or a copy of his birth certificate, he hacked into government computers. I mean come on.. how do WE know what he looked at? They also said he deleted some files...

Would you NOT be ****ed off and want to sue some person for hacking into your computer? Especially if he deleted some of your files?

I think you are missing the point here.. HE HACKED into Government computers.. I don't give a rats a$$ if he was looking for UFO's or a copy of his birth certificate, he hacked into government computers. I mean come on.. how do WE know what he looked at? They also said he deleted some files...

Would you NOT be ****ed off and want to sue some person for hacking into your computer? Especially if he deleted some of your files?

agreed. The man is 42, he is more than old enough to know that what he did is wrong. Nobody forced him to hack into the computers and he did it not once, not twice, but 97 times. I feel no sympathy for this man because now that he's been caught he wants to cry a river, should have thought about that when he committed the crime.

I think you are missing the point here.. HE HACKED into Government computers.. I don't give a rats a$$ if he was looking for UFO's or a copy of his birth certificate, he hacked into government computers. I mean come on.. how do WE know what he looked at? They also said he deleted some files...

Would you NOT be ****ed off and want to sue some person for hacking into your computer? Especially if he deleted some of your files?

yes i'd be ****ed, would i want the person responsible to be tried as a terrorist? no.

He broke the law but the punishment seems quite heavy-handed.

Makes you wonder if all he saw really was UFO-related. For all we know, the security services know exactly what he saw and that's the reason for the heavy-handedness.

thats the point, he isn't being asked to be let off etc, he's accepting a punishment but not one from the 'ZOMG HE'S A TERRORIST!!!!!' style US

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

I have to wonder if he really did understand what he was doing was wrong. I say that because he was dumb enough to hack into US Government computers, let alone 97 times, did he really not think he would be caught? -_-

I don't see why they are surprised he's being extradited, what did they think was going to happen? I'm just totally confused about what he expected to happen. I, at least, hope he saw something worthwhile to make the whole thing not a waste.

I would think they are classifying him as a "cyberterrorist" instead of your stereotypical suicide bomber terrorist. Sure his intent wasn't malicious(or at least I guess it wasn't), but hacking into computers and deleting files? We don't even know what he deleted, it could have been something important.

Edited by Travis959
I think you are missing the point here.. HE HACKED into Government computers.. I don't give a rats a$$ if he was looking for UFO's or a copy of his birth certificate, he hacked into government computers. I mean come on.. how do WE know what he looked at? They also said he deleted some files...

Would you NOT be ****ed off and want to sue some person for hacking into your computer? Especially if he deleted some of your files?

Oh yeah definitely if that's what had happened but put yourself in his shoes for a moment and take time to understand the problem here. His LIFE is on the line here would that not cause you to speak the truth and should he have deleted files or found something and ended up in this situation don't you think he would do an eye for an eye and leak what he found and deleted if he done anything if they are going to kill him over it ? He's explained it all he done in detail none of it's worth taking anybodies life over except the legal system in america feels he should be killed for their own relaxed security and fabricate that he deleted files or whatever to cover their ass from accepting they were wrong and what best way to cover you from being wrong then by killing the purpetrator doesn't this sound almost like police brutality and you say this is ok... that's just wrong. The point here is they are going to put him behind bars until he's dead for their own mistakes and lack of integrity over a crime which i'm not saying is wrong but punishment is not justified and in their eyes and abilitys the claims are fabricated for the above reasons.

well, he should have been out looking for a job...and besides? don't they have UFO's in the UK..or is that just Trolls and Knomes...LOL

besides, I doubt if he will even get close to 70 years. I'm sure Gordon Brown or your Queen will work something out.

Edited by jwjw1
well, he should have been out looking for a job...and besides? don't they have UFO's in the UK..or is that just Trolls and Knomes...LOL

besides, I doubt if he will even get close to 70 years. I'm sure Gordon Brown or your Queen will work something out. Might even work for your Government Computer Security....like at least add a 'password' for Idenity Collections.

In an ideal world that would be possible but trying to make compromises with the US demands ends up leaving your country at odds like russia atm so that's why none of these departments or people will help protect him because of political preassure.

Hacking into US government computers is not my idea of a good thing to do :|

I agree, but at the sametime the security on those computers was pure CRAP. If the stuff on those computers were that classified, wouldn't you expect the united states government to protect those computers?

The fact of the matter is that they didn't protect them. The guy commited a crime, but bringing him to the US to face a justice system that already made up it's mind and will impose an exagerated sentence is not good either.

The way I see it, it's the people in charge of security in those government facilities that should be in trial for sucking at their jobs.

I don't give a **** if the security was crap. If I leave my house unlocked and you go in and steal something, that's stealing. I don't care if you say that all you wanted to take from me was a penny. You stole. This guy can go straight to jail as far as I'm concerned.

Hopefully their govt does something and steps in. They are right, he has no chance at a fair trial here. We'll just waste tax dollars by having him here. Thats a long ass time for something thats a NON violent crime. I dont give a **** what anyone thinks either. Drug dealers, rapists get less then that, if any time at all! It makes no sense at all. UK govt should just tell us to **** off your not getting him and be done with it.

If someone gets by your security by something so simple, then thats on you. Don't go crying about it if there was something more that YOU could have done to stop it before it happened. They take our tax dollars they could have atleast put an extra layer of protection on it.

People are wondering why he got 70 years and why the government calls it "the biggest military hack of all time". Here's a list of what he apparently found:

-List of military/government officers listed as "non-terrestrial"

-Documents about a secret space program and "fleet to fleet transfers"

-Documents about alien technology

-Documents about free energy

-Documents about the known alien presence and the cover-up of it

-Documents about anti-gravity technology

-Documents that mention there's a "building 8" at NASA used for airbrushing images before they reach the public

-Documents with names of "ships". When he searched the names they didn't match any publicly known ships.

-Images of UFO's

Among other things...

Before Gary McKinnon was ever known, there have been some very credible people talking about all this same exact stuff. Former astronauts, government and military officials were coming out and talking about the same stuff years ago and still do. These people would have no reason to lie and say they're tired of the government hiding everything from the public. You can't ignore stuff like that. Especially when it's come from more than a few astronauts over the years. They've also talked about how the security around a lot of the stuff is actually very poor and how a lot of it is right out in the open because that's the best place to hide it.

There's a very good reason why they want him put away for 70 years. He saw some things and they want to make sure he never talks about it again.

My two cents worth

Edited by NightmarE D
People are wondering why he got 70 years and why the government calls it "the biggest military hack of all time". Here's a list of what he apparently found:

-List of military/government officers listed as "non-terrestrial"

-Documents about a secret space program and "fleet to fleet transfers"

-Documents about alien technology

-Documents about free energy

-Documents about the known alien presence and the cover-up of it

-Documents about anti-gravity technology

-Documents that mention there's a "building 8" at NASA used for airbrushing images before they reach the public

-Documents with names of "ships". When he searched the names they didn't match any publicly known ships.

-Images of UFO's

Among other things...

Before Gary McKinnon was ever known, there have been some very credible people talking about all this same exact stuff. Former astronauts, government and military officials were coming out and talking about the same stuff years ago and still do. These people would have no reason to lie and say they're tired of the government hiding everything from the public. You can't ignore stuff like that. Especially when it's come from more than a few astronauts over the years. They've also talked about how the security around a lot of the stuff is actually very poor and how a lot of it is right out in the open because that's the place place to hide it.

There's a very good reason why they want him put away for 70 years. He saw some things and they want to make sure he never talks about it again.

My two cents worth

Good point - putting something under the most mega extreme super ultra high security is basically waving a flag at hackers.

Whereas placing that design for free energy on standard Windows ME installation is not :p

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Look up 'inflation' kid. Ask an AI for the numbers between both games.
    • Google reportedly set to lose two key Gemini and DeepMind researchers to Anthropic by Karthik Mudaliar Google is reportedly preparing to lose two more prominent artificial intelligence researchers, with Gemini contributors Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel planning to join rival AI developer Anthropic. According to a report from Bloomberg, both researchers are viewed internally as important contributors to Google’s flagship Gemini model family. Adler worked on Google’s AI coding efforts, while Pritzel was involved in the process used to train AI systems. Neither company has publicly confirmed the moves. The report also does not say when the researchers will formally leave Google or what positions they will hold at Anthropic. Training a large AI model requires decisions covering its architecture, data preparation, distributed computing infrastructure, and post-training methods that shape how the finished system behaves. Researchers with experience operating at the scale of Gemini are consequently difficult to replace quickly. Both Adler and Pritzel have previously contributed to Google DeepMind’s scientific research as well. They are listed among the authors of the company’s work on expanding AlphaFold protein-structure predictions across entire proteomes, alongside AlphaFold researchers including John Jumper. The reported departures arrive shortly after another important change within Google’s Gemini organization. Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer is leaving Google for OpenAI, after returning to the search company in 2024 through its deal with Character.AI. Shazeer is particularly well known as one of the authors of the Transformer paper, whose architecture became the foundation for most modern large language models. Anthropic, meanwhile, has been recruiting recognizable figures from other leading laboratories. OpenAI co-founder and former Tesla AI director Andrej Karpathy joined Anthropic’s pre-training team in May. His move, followed by the reported recruitment of several Google researchers, suggests Anthropic is strengthening the research teams responsible for the core capabilities of future Claude models rather than concentrating solely on product and enterprise sales. The competition is complicated by the companies’ extensive commercial relationships. Anthropic competes directly with Google’s Gemini models, but it also relies on Google as an infrastructure partner. In April, Anthropic announced an expanded agreement with Google and Broadcom covering multiple gigawatts of next-generation Tensor Processing Unit capacity. TPUs are Google-designed accelerators used to train and run large AI models. via Bloomberg
    • This article makes my head hurt. Lots of confusing words
    • Google adds built-in computer control to Gemini 3.5 flash by Karthik Mudaliar Google has added Computer Use as a built-in tool in Gemini 3.5 Flash, giving developers a single model that can reason about a task and operate graphical interfaces across browsers, mobile devices, and desktop environments. The feature is available through the Gemini API and Google’s Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, although it remains a preview feature for now. Computer Use enables an AI agent to examine screenshots and return actions such as mouse clicks, scrolling, and keyboard input. A developer’s application must execute those actions, capture the resulting screen, and send it back to Gemini, creating a continuous loop until the task is completed. Google says the integration can be used for activities including repetitive form filling, application testing, research across multiple websites, and longer enterprise workflows. Gemini 3.5 Flash can work with browser, mobile, and desktop environments, whereas Google’s earlier standalone Computer Use model was primarily positioned around browser interaction. The main change is consolidation. Computer control was previously offered through the separate Gemini 2.5 Computer Use preview model. As Neowin reported when that model was introduced, it was designed to interpret a visual interface and generate actions without requiring a website-specific API. Google later brought Computer Use to preview versions of Gemini 3 Pro and Gemini 3 Flash in January 2026. The latest release now incorporates the tool into the stable Gemini 3.5 Flash model rather than requiring developers to select a specialized model solely for interface automation. Gemini 3.5 Flash itself was announced in May as Google’s latest fast model for coding and multi-step agent workflows. It supports a one-million-token input context window and up to 65,000 output tokens, along with adjustable thinking levels that let developers trade additional reasoning for lower latency and cost. Google also added that Gemini 3.5 Flash received targeted adversarial training for computer-use scenarios. The company is also offering safeguards that can require user confirmation before sensitive or irreversible actions and automatically stop a workflow when suspected prompt injection is detected. Its developer documentation describes configurable protections for areas such as financial transactions and changes to sensitive records. Google isn't the first to bring Computer Use to its platform. Anthropic has made computer control available through Claude, while OpenAI has continued improving computer-use performance in its recent models. Microsoft has also applied the concept to business workflows, including a Computer Use capability for the Researcher agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot.
    • After I installed KB5095093, the volume on my ARM laptop won't go above 20%. It's stuck on the hearing protection level, which is pretty much useless if you want to listen to anything. I rolled back.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Dedicated
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • First Post
      Tom Schmidt earned a badge
      First Post
    • One Month Later
      D0nn13 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Rookie
      +ChiefOfNeo went up a rank
      Rookie
    • One Year In
      Tom Schmidt earned a badge
      One Year In
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      463
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      177
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      124
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      79
    5. 5
      Xenon
      76
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!