Extradition Appeal for British Hacker Dismissed
The U.S. pursued extradition for the offenses, which McKinnon sought to block. Then-U.K. Home Secretary John Reid approved the extradition order, but McKinnon appealed. He lost that appeal in London's High Court in April 2007.
McKinnon then turned to the House of Lords, the final court of appeal for points of law in the U.K., which dismissed his appeal Wednesday.
McKinnon maintains that his hacking never caused any harm, and that he only probed the computers looking for evidence that the U.S. government has knowledge of UFOs.
However, the U.S. said that the intrusions disrupted computer networks used by the military that were critical to operations conducted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The U.S. estimates the damage caused by McKinnon at US$700,000.
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