Gary McKinnon’s Case Study
Alleged computer hacker Gary McKinnon of the United Kingdom has publicly admitted to compromising computer systems belonging to NASA and the Department of Defense. Using information from your classroom, additional materials provided by your instructor, and your own independent research, discuss the impact of these widespread intrusions, and comment on McKinnon’s self-proclaimed motivations. Describe McKinnon in the context of the frameworks and theories of cyber-crime and cyber criminals discussed in the classroom. Are the efforts to extradite McKinnon to the United States simply a political stunt, or are they an important precedent in prosecuting international cyber-crimes? Finally, share what you know about computer security and best practices to make recommendations to prevent similar incidents in the future. Your submission should be a minimum of four pages in length, and it should conform to APA formatting and citation standards. A title page and reference list (APA style) are mandatory, but they will not count toward the four-page requiremen
Gary McKinnon’s Case Study
Gary McKinnon’s intrusion of breaking to the United States defense site has impacted the Atlantic’s political and diplomatic story. The case is a paradigm of various critics from the UK and the US concerning the extradition treaty considered unfair. The case raises debates on fairness and justice of the new extradition treaty of 2003 between the UK and the US (Gurkok, 2017). According to McKinnon’s, the agreement favors the United States than the United Kingdom, making it possible and more comfortable to extradite people from the UK to the US than from the US to the UK. According to the MP, the treaty lacks public confidence in the UK, where the government gets the urge to revive public trust towards the settlement (Horsman, 2017). The United States ambassador believes the compensation is fair and balanced; therefore, it should not be used based on emotions and sentiments.
The United Kingdom National Autistic society, however, decided to fight for Gary’s rights through demanding for freedom to stay in the UK. Hacking the United States military security site, was the biggest computer-related crime. The hack occurred when NASA viewed online intrusion as a sensitive matter (Gurkok, 2017). US naval weapon station was one of the websites intruded by Gary McKinnon’s writing and leaving a message that “your security is crap.
Additionally, Gary deleted important information from the military systems, copying and taking sensitive data to shut down the NASA network. Before the incident, Gary McKinnon had other accusations of computer-related cases. Since then, Gary had never been prosecuted but always released by bail due to a mental condition known as Asperger’s syndrome. McKinnon’s hacking case raised concerns and affected the justice and integrity system of United Kingdom judicial procedures. Lawyers behind Gary’s case, Gary’s mother and David Cameroon, a leader, fought for Gary’s rights claiming that Gary is a vulnerable man and did not deserve prosecution. The case brought together various political alliances; for instance, the coalition government David Burrowes a member of parliament and Shami Chakrabarti, the director of civil rights. – Best Dissertation Writing Services UK
McKinnon’s self-proclaimed motivation is based on curiosity where the hacker is considered a mild-mannered and gentle to have such malicious intentions. McKinnon’s psychological behavior resulted from both autism and Asperger syndrome; therefore, being disabled unintentional when hacking the NASA computer systems. McKinnon’s extradition debate arose from the mental condition where the decisions made were made out of pity and mercy towards the hacker (Bassiouni, 2020). According to human rights, individual vulnerability is the origin of humanity and human rights communication. According to several views, most commented that McKinnon’s skills and intelligence should be employed in the military to portray hs expertise in computer science. For instance, comments from the chairman of home affairs that anyone getting into pentagon computer systems should be employed rather than trial. Gary is considered a geek and a nerd with no bad intentions.
Efforts to extradite Mc Kinnon is not a political stunt but a way of prosecuting international cybercrimes. International cybercrimes are a severe problem where criminals get pursued at all costs (Bassiouni, 2020). Mc Kinnon’s extraditions to the United States would not go against his human rights but would be the right thing to do due to the serious accusations. The accusation of cyber criminality is severe similar to Asperger syndrome and depressive illness. Extradition is an essential rule where most cases, especially concerning cybercrimes, cross the border to avoid injustice and cover-up situations that require to be handled. The United States’ fight against cybersecurity is evident regardless of the alleged mental illness. The United States went through severe damage and loss caused by the cyber-attack. NASA and military information systems lost valuable information and tampering with the country’s confidential information. If not of Gary’s mental illnesses and the need to kill himself if prosecuted, the alleged could have served sixty-seven years in jail.
The United States has been fighting cybercrime, especially terrorism and cybercriminals, since the emergence of cases in New York and Washington. First, cybercrimes are a result of psychosocial, socioeconomic, and geopolitical factors. Cybercrimes are a result of motivation where criminals are motivated financially, psychologically to receive psychological benefits, and for political gains known as geopolitical cybercrimes (Horsman, 2017). McKinnon’s cybercrime is highly motivated by psychological benefits caused by psychological distress, considering Gary was suffering from a mental illness condition and depression. McKinnon cyber criminality is self-motivated for self-satisfaction done to impress or satisfy psychological distress. However, motivation involves intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, wherein this context, extrinsic motivation requires engaging in cybercrime for mere self-satisfaction.
Nevertheless, McKinnon’s extrusive motivation could have been intimidated if the hacker could have internalized the action’s impact. McKinnon engaged in hacking as a task of enjoyment and satisfaction out of the absence of concern, lack or disappearance of self-consciousness and lack of conscious distractions (Bassiouni, 2020). Nevertheless, most hackers conduct their activities intending to do political stunts and, for an instant, coping sensitive information from the NASA and military websites to disclose the united states political and security missions.
Most government agencies and businesses are victims of cybercrime where attackers may come from within the organization or outside the organization (Chang, Zhong, and Grabosky, 2018). Cybercrime is a leading challenge in most countries; the government and most organizations have invested profoundly in cybersecurity, reducing and eliminating risks of a data breach through cybersecurity best practices. Some of the adequate cybersecurity best practices that could have voided McKinnon attack includes management of the internet of things security through the use of security cameras, ensure appropriate authentication, data encryption to avoid copying of relevant information. – Best Dissertation Writing Services UK
Raise awareness among employees or members of military force, especially on the importance of computer security. Besides, the employment of a risk-based approach to monitoring and manage current cybersecurity strategy and security (Chang, Zhong, and Grabosky, 2018). Conducting frequent cybersecurity assessment and infrastructure Assessment would have Helped and identified threats and vulnerabilities. Lastly, backing up data which is a lifesaver, especially in avoiding copying as well as restricting unknown or unauthorized sources of information.
The case Of McKinnon has received different views where some believe the scenario tries to portray him as a victim of human rights. In other cases, an example is a form of cybersecurity crimes, which as standard, especially international cybercrimes. The case has a significant impact on the United States and united kingdom political ideologies concerning the extradition treaty of 2003. Mc Kinnon, who has a severe mental illness, means that his criminal record as a hacker is a motivation for psychological distress rather than reputation or money. Regardless of his mental illness, McKinnon’s case shows efforts in fighting against cybercrimes and the impact of cybercrimes in most organizations, especially in government agencies such as NASA and military force.
References
Bassiouni, M. C. (2020). The Political Offense Exception Revisited: Extradition between the US and the UK-A Choice between Friendly Cooperation among Allies and Sound Law and Policy. Denver Journal of International Law & Policy, 15(2), 4.
Chang, L. Y., Zhong, L. Y., & Grabosky, P. N. (2018). Citizen co‐production of cyber security: Self‐help, vigilantes, and cybercrime. Regulation & Governance, 12(1), 101-114. – Best Dissertation Writing Services UK
Gurkok, C. (2017). Cyber Forensics and Incidence Response. In Computer and Information Security Handbook (pp. 603-628). Morgan Kaufmann.
Horsman, G. (2017). Can we continue to effectively police digital crime?. Science & Justice, 57(6), 448-454.
