Gary McKinnon
termhackinggovernance & risk
The Scottish systems administrator who between 2001 and 2002 wandered through dozens of US military and NASA computers looking, by his own account, for suppressed evidence of free-energy technology and UFOs - and who found his way in largely through blank and default passwords.
American prosecutors called it the biggest military computer hack of all time and sought extradition; a decade-long legal fight followed, and in 2012 the UK Home Secretary blocked it on human-rights grounds after McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. The case is studied twice over: as the definitive argument about extradition and proportionality in computer crime, and as an uncomfortable audit finding - the world's most sensitive networks were entered by someone who mostly just tried empty passwords.
Also known as: solo, ufo hacker, extradition case