British man 'hacked into US military computers'

An unemployed programmer from Britain could be extradited to the United States after being accused of hacking into a large part of America's military computer network since the 11 September attacks.

Gary McKinnon, 39, faces a lengthy prison sentence if convicted. He allegedly exploited lax security systems to gain access to networks run by the Space agency Nasa, the army, navy and military intelligence.

Paul McNulty, a US attorney, said last night: "Ultimately, he is alleged to have crashed the computers running the network for the military district of Washington. This caused 2,000 users to be without internet and e-mail for three days."

He was charged in northern Virginia and New Jersey on eight counts of computer- related crimes, including break-ins at six commercial companies, and faces the highly unusual prospect of extradition to the United States for computer crime. If convicted, Mr McKinnon could be jailed for five years and fined £157,000.

Prosecutors believe Mr McKinnon, from Hornsey, north London, was acting alone rather than as part of a terrorist organisation. They said they were shocked at the level of penetration he achieved and the subsequent damage he caused to computers in 14 states at an estimated cost of £566,000.

Between March 2001 and March this year, Mr McKinnon allegedly searched for US military and Nasa computers that were "open for attack".

He then installed hacker tools, including a program that gave him control of the computer, according to Mr McNulty. With these, he accessed other computers from which he copied files and deleted critical systems files, the lawyer said.

Two army computers at the Pentagon and other military intelligence computers were among those he is accused of breaking into. He is also suspected of crashing systems at a navy facility immediately after the 11 September terror attacks.