π¨βπ»McKinnon Overview
Gary "SOLO" McKinnon's extradition case got the most publicity.
Last updated
Gary "SOLO" McKinnon's extradition case got the most publicity.
Last updated
"The biggest military computer hack of all time." - US prosecuting attorney Paul McNulty
2001-2002 Gary "SOLO" McKinnon, 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 Disclosure Project and specifically the testimony of Donna Hare, 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 cylindrical craft with domes 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 US charges.
2005 Interview in The Guardian newspaper: article
2006 interview with Gary for BBC Click Online: YouTube video
2006 interview by Project Camelot: YouTube video, higher resolution video
2006 Interview for WIRED Magazine: article
2006 Interview for .net Magazine: article
2007 "SOLO" interviewed on Hacker's Voice Radio podcast: mp3 audio
2007 talk on Gary at UFO Crash Con by Matthew Williams: YouTube video
Proceedings from this conference include an interview with Gary here.
2009 "Gary McKinnon: Britain's Hacking Hero?": article
2011 "The Autistic Hacker", profile in IEEE Spectrum: article
2015 Interview by Richard D. Hall: YouTube video
2017 Gary spoke via video link at the MUFON Symposium:
I have uploaded the full talk with audience questions here. Just the talk is on Gary's YouTube.
The symposium proceedings include a transcript of Gary's speech, which I have archived here.
2018 Gary is featured on Ancient Aliens: YouTube video
2019 UFO Chronicles podcast: web player, Spotify, mp3 audio
2019 Interview by Richard Dolan: YouTube video
2020 Interview by Richard Medhurst: article
2022 Gary McKinnon's Reddit AMA on /r/UFOs: Reddit thread
2022 interview by Tim Ventura: YouTube video
2023 interview by 'M' Seeker of Truth: YouTube video
2023 interview by Chris Thrall: YouTube video
First, Gary says that he used IPindex.net for reconnaissance. Using the Internet Archive of that site, and comparing it with the specific IPs from his indictment, 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 manual for RemotelyAnywhere, remote installation is documented:
Last, I found this program in an old CD-ROM's contents: About Proxynator screenshot 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.
2012 Gary was unlucky by Peter Warren (how Gary was caught)
2012 BBC Profile: Gary McKinnon (why Gary's extradition was blocked)
2014 From Kuji to Solo by Ryan Sprague (covers both Mathew Bevan and Gary McKinnon)
2016 UFO Hacker Gary McKinnon Story by Joel Hasse (/u/EarthmanJoel's fantastic article)
2016 Hackers Expose Secret Space Missions and Government UFO Research by Gaia Staff (factual errors)
2020 UFO Hackers Pay the Price by Ryan Sprague (almost entirely a repost of his 2014 article)
2024 The Man Who Hacked the U.S. Government by Newsthink (YouTube video)
Reportedy, a TV movie based on Gary McKinnon is in the works. (Deadline)