US computer systems 'may have been badly defended after 9/11'

2009-08-05

It seems that the US computer systems were very badly defended in the months after 9/11, it has been suggested.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said that it appears as though US systems did not have standard passwords in place, which meant that hacker Gary McKinnon could carry out a data breach and gain access to some of them.

He said he thought there is a general feeling that the US could be attempting to make an example of Mr McKinnon because of these weakly defended systems.

Talking about Mr McKinnon's case, Mr Cluley commented: "It doesn't appear to have been financially motivated, as most hacking these days is about making money.

"He was basically a lone conspiracy theory nut."

A poll of 550 IT professionals by Sophos recently showed that seven out of ten believe NASA hacker Mr McKinnon should not be extradited to the US, compared to 52 per cent from a survey in 2006.

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