A British hacker who sought to find evidence of UFOs on U.S.
military computers has another chance at avoiding extradition after a
court ruling Friday.

The High Court in London ruled that Gary
McKinnon can have his case reviewed by the director of public
prosecutions for England and Wales, Keir Starmer, according to
statement released by McKinnon's attorney.

McKinnon
is seeking to be prosecuted in the U.K. although his extradition order
has been approved by the U.K. government. He has managed to avoid
extradition so far through a series of legal maneuvers and appeals, all
of which have been unsuccessful but held up his transfer to the U.S.

McKinnon
was indicted in November 2002 in the U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of Virginia. He faces charges of illegally accessing
and damaging U.S. government computers.

The U.S. government
alleges his exploits cost at least US$700,000 and caused the shutdown
of critical military networks shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks. McKinnon could face a sentence of 60 years or more.

Most
recently, McKinnon has tried to garner support that, for medical
reasons, if he is extradited and sentenced he should be allowed to
serve a sentence in the U.K. Now McKinnon is pushing to only be
prosecuted in the U.K. due to the stress he would endure from a U.S.
trial.

He has been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, which is a
neurological disorder characterized by obsessive behavior and
deficiencies in social interaction.

McKinnon has admitted to
hacking the computers and described how he did it in detail at computer
security conferences in London. From his north London home, McKinnon
began probing military computers looking for evidence of UFOs.

He
used a program called "RemotelyAnywhere" to control U.S. military
computers. Many of the computers he accessed were set up with default
passwords, which made them easy to access, McKinnon has said.

He
timed his hacking when no one was working at the U.S. offices. But on
one occasion he miscalculated the time difference. Someone using a
computer that McKinnon controlled noticed the cursor moving on its own.
The connection was severed, and U.K. police eventually tracked McKinnon
down.

http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,158211/printable.html