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McKinnon

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readingbetweenlines
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07 Dec 2011, 5:52 am

pokerface wrote:
I don't know Mckinnon but I think that he knows the difference between right and wrong. My theory is that he became obsessed with the question if there are other life forms in the universe. If someone with Aspergers gets obsessed with something he (or she) goes to great lengths to satisfy that obsession whilst losing all contact with reality and day to day life in the meantime.

I think that the USA should stop fussing about Mckinnon. He is probably not the only one who has hacked into the Pentagon and the NASA, he is just one of the few people who got caught. The USA should take a good look at itself because it's obviously not cabable of securing computersystems and databases in a professional manner.

Mckinnon has clearly got some talents when it comes to computing and those talents should be put to good use. Imprisoning someone because of his actions (that are caused by a disability) is NOT the way to go.


Completely agree. As to the question of knowing the difference between right and wrong, and I don't know McKinnon either of course, I can envisage a scenario where the combination of pursuing an overwhelming special interest combined with naïvety plus the absence of awareness of having AS (which might make you pause and question your actions) might mean that the question of right/wrong did not arise in McKinnon's mind. Speculative on my part, of course.


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Last edited by readingbetweenlines on 07 Dec 2011, 10:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

Wolfheart
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07 Dec 2011, 6:07 am

readingbetweenlines wrote:
I can envisage a scenario where the combination of pursuing an overwhelming special interest combined with naively plus the absence of awareness of having AS (which might make you pause and question your actions) might mean that the question of right/wrong did not arise in McKinnon's mind. Speculative on my part, of course.


I agree, he also mentioned that he believed the technology they were hiding should be available to the public so in his own mind, he was justified to do what he did.

Pokerface wrote:
I think that the USA should stop fussing about Mckinnon. He is probably not the only one who has hacked into the Pentagon and the NASA, he is just one of the few people who got caught.


I agree but to let him go now would be a display of mercy and I think they want to make an example out of Gary to prevent future incidents and scare cyber terrorists. It's still not justified to say that it was right because of the lack of security, if you were a burglar and someone left their front door open and you decided to rob it, would it make it any less of a crime? Of course not.



Asp-Z
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07 Dec 2011, 12:00 pm

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6fYMzKvXxg[/youtube]

The US should be hiring the guy, and let's face it, if he is extradited, they'll probably let him out of prison early if he helps with the security, a sort of Catch Me If You Can scenario.



FTM
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07 Dec 2011, 2:57 pm

I think Garry McKinnon is being charged with causing $1000 worth of damage to several computers, if the damage was $999 then he couldn't be deported as it has to be $1000 or more. I'm not sure he could be charged with hacking because there was no security passwords needed on the sites he visited so he didn't hack into them he just logged in. The damage he did was wiping out some data when he tried to cover his tracks. He also left a message saying "your security is sh*t" which I think is the real reason the Americans want to prosecuted him. He made them look stupid

He has also said when he was on the sites he wasn't alone, there were lots of others logged on, he just made the mistake of wiping out the wrong data.



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07 Dec 2011, 3:16 pm

FTM wrote:
He also left a message saying "your security is sh*t" which I think is the real reason the Americans want to prosecuted him. He made them look stupid


That's basically it.



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07 Dec 2011, 4:25 pm

squonk wrote:
Ambivalence wrote:
squonk wrote:
Wolfheart wrote:
Yes, he was diagnosed many years later, the alleged crime he committed was between 2001 and 2002, he didn't receive a diagnosis until 2008 by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor Jeremy Turk and Professor Thomas Bernie.


Thanks Wolfheart, just as I thought. All a bit too convenient.

You are saying that Baron-Cohen et al are lying or incompetent, then. Why?




:?: You will find that I have not written that anywhere.

I'm looking not just at this but other cases I have read where Asperger's has and seems to be being used as some kind of excuse for a misdemeanor, usually discovered after the event.

As for Baron-Cohen and any other professional in any walk of life, mistakes can also be made. Of course there is incompetence in any given field. So your statement and insinuation is imperfect.

Nope. "Too convenient" implies complicity, not error.


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adifferentname
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07 Dec 2011, 4:51 pm

Ambivalence wrote:
squonk wrote:
Ambivalence wrote:
squonk wrote:
Wolfheart wrote:
Yes, he was diagnosed many years later, the alleged crime he committed was between 2001 and 2002, he didn't receive a diagnosis until 2008 by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor Jeremy Turk and Professor Thomas Bernie.


Thanks Wolfheart, just as I thought. All a bit too convenient.

You are saying that Baron-Cohen et al are lying or incompetent, then. Why?




:?: You will find that I have not written that anywhere.

I'm looking not just at this but other cases I have read where Asperger's has and seems to be being used as some kind of excuse for a misdemeanor, usually discovered after the event.

As for Baron-Cohen and any other professional in any walk of life, mistakes can also be made. Of course there is incompetence in any given field. So your statement and insinuation is imperfect.

Nope. "Too convenient" implies complicity, not error.


That's exactly how I read it, Ambivalence.

As for Asperger's being used as an 'excuse for a misdemeanor', this is far from the case. However, Mckinnon's situation is a perfect example of a neurological condition bumping heads with mens rea.