Hackers & UFOs
This is the history of hackers looking for evidence of UFOs.
Last updated
This is the history of hackers looking for evidence of UFOs.
Last updated
TL;DR: At least three hackers targeted US military and/or government computer systems between about 1992 and 2002 looking for evidence related to UFOs. According to them, they found it.
Table of Contents:
--"Quentin" is interviewed, with other hackers. ,
This segment was also described in a .
"Quentin told us he's...browsed through secret government files on UFOs, and gone snooping in our nation's military computers." - Narrator (2:15)
1993 published in Phrack Magazine, Issue 42, File 13.
(Use CTRL+F to find "Text File" for the relevant part.)
The prints UFO-related search terms and IP addresses of US secret networks, information supplied by "Quentin" and possibly two or more accomplices.
that predates the Phrack article. ()
, who wrote letters to NBC.
2019 , who attributes:
"The hacker is aware of the interest his apparent UFO data has provoked, but does not wish to respond." - the late Susan Adams (Dateline NBC producer)
Quentin influenced and , the hackers who succeeded him. From email correspondence:
"I was referencing this textfile... Phrack... it was picked up in the BBS I went to." - Mathew Bevan
"I remember the Quentin docs and other stuff. IP Addresses of some of them overlap with what I found." - Gary McKinnon
I contacted Chris "Erik Bloodaxe" Goggans, the editor of Phrack. Here are two things he said:
"I know that Quentin had at least two people in the hacker scene that he considered friends and was usually working with on whatever it was he was up to. Don't know much more about them."
"I have no real way to track down authors of the submitted articles at this point, as I don't have the Phrack email archives from 1993."
Quentin's true identity remains unknown.
“Nearly started a third world war.” - Jim Christy, AFOSI
“Possibly the single biggest threat to world peace since Adolf Hitler.” - a Pentagon source
In getting into that there was one machine on the network where I read current files and future project proposals. I read documents which gave me the impression that they had an anti-gravity engine which was capable of at least Mach 12 to Mach 15. I don't know how exactly how fast that is but I think that is faster than most aircraft we know of today. Supposedly the aircraft which employs this engine uses a reactor to which there were a lot of detailed numbers and figures for, but I have no idea what all this meant. I can remember that the documents referred to a super heavy element, whatever that means. The element is the main fuel for the reactor. The engine worked by making a disturbance of molecules at the front of the craft so that it was able to stop the inertia or G-force inside the craft. I got the impression that this information was the type of material I was looking for because it was far in advance of our current technology and could be something to do with the Roswell UFO. Finding this threw me because I didn't know if this information was a disinformation exercise and that people were meant to get in and find this stuff or if it was real. I can't be sure and this is the one annoying thing.
Bevan also says,
I like to think what I saw was not misinformation.
"The biggest military computer hack of all time." - US prosecuting attorney Paul McNulty
Gary told me that he "remembers the Quentin docs and other stuff" and that the IP addresses overlap with what he found. I looked into this, and found the following:
While an Episcopal priest, Thieme reports a fighter pilot confided in him regarding UFOs, confirming that in their fastest jets,
We chase them, and we can't catch them.
Unknown A massive and incredible archive found by a friend: PreterHuman.net archive
1994 Inspired by the articles in Phrack, (and a rumor about Project Green Cheese being ,) Bevan used a Commodore Amiga 500 and 1200 to penetrate the US Air Force, NASA, and NATO.
1996 Bevan is arrested . However, Bevan is let off 18 months later due to lack of evidence. (The US was unwilling to provide evidence of military digital intrusion to a UK court.)
1996 when Bevan was arrested.
1997 when Bevan was released.
1997 when Bevan was released.
1999
, , and covered Bevan's case extensively, along with other sources.
Interview by David Glover:
BBC #1:
BBC #2:
HTV:
Wales Tonight:
1999 . (Archive)
2003 . (Archive)
Technical details about Bevan's hack are discussed in . He accomplished this over a USR 14.4K dial-up modem.
Of note is that he got into a Wright-Patterson Air Force Base system that took no password and :
2001-2002 , the most well-known UFO hacker, breaks into US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, Department of Defense, and NASA computers by targeting systems with administrator passwords of "Administrator," "password," or blank. Gary accomplishes this using a Perl program to mass scan a /16 IP space and probe the NetBIOS protocol on port 139. He uses a 56K dial-up modem. On some systems, he installs RemotelyAnywhere for remote desktop. He uses Landsearch software to search through all files on all computers across a domain. On a Navy system, he sees spreadsheet tabs with titles such as "non-terrestrial officers" and "fleet-to-fleet transfers", with names of ships not known to be in the US Navy. Also, following Dr. Steven Greer's and specifically the testimony of , he targets Building 8 at NASA Johnson Space Center where UFOs are reportedly being airbrushed out of satellite photography before the photos are released to the public. He makes it onto a system and sees a 'raw' photo of a smooth that has no seams or rivets. However, he miscalculates the time zones and is disconnected by a local computer user before he can take a screenshot. Months later, he is arrested by the UK's National Hi-Tech Crimes Unit (who seized his computer) and he is put under an extradition order from the US. It will be a 10-year legal battle before his extradition is finally blocked by the UK over human rights and UK charges are eventually dropped. Gary still faces .
2005 Interview in The Guardian newspaper:
2005 Interview with BBC News World Service:
2006 interview with Gary for BBC Click Online:
2006 interview by Project Camelot: ,
2006 Interview for WIRED Magazine:
2006 Interview for .net Magazine:
2007 "SOLO" interviewed on Hacker's Voice Radio podcast:
2007 talk on Gary at UFO Crash Con by Matthew Williams:
Proceedings from this conference include an interview with Gary .
2008 Gary McKinnon Intervew Footage by ITN:
2009 "Gary McKinnon: Britain's Hacking Hero?":
2011 "The Autistic Hacker", profile in IEEE Spectrum:
2015 Interview by Richard D. Hall:
2017 spoke via video link at the MUFON Symposium:
I have uploaded the full talk with audience questions . Just the talk is on .
The symposium proceedings include a transcript of Gary's speech, which I have archived .
2018 is featured on Ancient Aliens:
2019 UFO Chronicles podcast: , ,
2019 Interview by Richard Dolan:
2020 Interview by Richard Medhurst:
2022 Gary McKinnon's Reddit AMA on /r/UFOs:
2022 interview by Tim Ventura:
2023 interview by 'M' Seeker of Truth:
2023 interview by Chris Thrall:
2024 Gary McKinnon is featured in James Fox's documentary film:
2025 Gary McKinnon rejoins Twitter/X as
First, Gary says that he used IPindex.net for reconnaissance. Using the , and comparing it with , we can see that the IP ranges in Texas correspond to NASA Johnson Space Center.
Next, Gary says he used RemotelyAnywhere to remotely control the NASA JSC desktop. Looking at the 2002 , remote installation is documented:
Last, I found this program in an old CD-ROM's contents: I used these same hacking techniques at around the same time. As seen, the idea is attributed to "SOLO", capitalized the same as Gary's handle.
According to Gary, there is "" as Solar Warden. He has consistently said that he does not remember the names of the ships in the "fleet-to-fleet transfers" document, and when asked specifically about the names "USSS Hillenkoetter" and "USSS Curtis LeMay" after his 2017 MUFON Symposium talk, he reiterated that he does not remember those names. The earliest reference I can find to these is a by Alejandro Rojas, who attributes them to rumors.
2012 by Peter Warren (how Gary was caught)
2012 BBC (why Gary's extradition was blocked)
2014 by Ryan Sprague (covers both Mathew Bevan and Gary McKinnon)
2016 by Joel Hasse (/u/EarthmanJoel's fantastic article)
2016 by Gaia Staff (factual errors)
2020 by Ryan Sprague (almost entirely a repost of his 2014 article)
2024 by Newsthink (YouTube video)
Reportedy, a TV movie based on Gary McKinnon is in the works. ()
, while not a hacker in the traditional sense, is an and public speaker, who talks on UFOs at the annual DEFCON hacker conference in Las Vegas, and at the MUFON Symposium:
2002 MUFON Symposium - Are There UFOs on Mars?:
2006 DEFCON 14 - ( - mentions crash retrievals and counterintelligence)
2007 DEFCON 15 - Hacking UFOlogy: Thirty Years in the Wilderness of Mirrors: , , , ,
2009 DEFCON 17 - Hacking UFOlogy 102: The Implications of UFOs for Life, the Universe, and Everything: , ,
2013 Security BSides Las Vegas - Governments and UFOs: A Historical Analysis of Disinformation and Deception: , , ,
2013 DEFCON 21 - The Government and UFOs: A Historical Analysis: , , , , ,
These two 2013 talks were in line with a book Thieme co-authored: .
Thieme also was interviewed by WBSD radio about the book: ,
2014 THOTCON 0x5 - (No recording)
2016 MUFON Symposium - Against the Wind: Why People Can't Think Seriously About UFOs: , ,
2016 Open Minds UFO Radio - UFOs, Technology and the Future (Alejandro Rojas has Thieme as a guest): ,
2021 DEFCON 29 - UFOs: Misinformation, Disinformation, and the Basic Truth: , , ,
2022 DEFCON 30 - UFOs, Alien Life, and the Least Untruthful Things I Can Say: , , , ,
Thieme has given talks on other topics as well, .
Thieme also wrote a monthly column which was compiled in his book . In the original version, no longer in print, Chapter 9 "The Dark Side of the Moon and Beyond" contains columns written between 1997 and 2001 regarding UFOs. With Thieme's permission, I have republished five of these columns .
2022 Reddit AMA with Richard Thieme on /r/UFOs:
Thieme's 2023 fiction book covers "the deft management of UFO phenomena and research in the intelligence community," among other topics.
Source: 2014 by Richard Thieme - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper
At DEFCON 3 in 1995, the late UFO researcher Glen Campbell gave a talk on Area 51:
1976-1996 UFO discussion takes place on BBSes (Bulletin Board Systems): , (file is "Quentin" again)
1982-1998 of Rutgers University ( is "Quentin" again)
1986-1995 ( spells his name "Quintin")
1987-2001 Additional zines and texts:
1989-1990 ParaNet Posts Archive:
1989-2014 A search reveals a BBStro or two for Ufopaedia:
1994 alt.alien.visitors Usenet newsgroup FAQ (7 parts):
1995 Plaintext Diskmag: (more on )
1990's UFO BBS Files archive:
1981+ A trove of historical Usenet newsgroup postings can be found on
Related TXT: The late John Lear's letters: , (See also 's )
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