Articles | Pentagon hacker: 'It was easy'

Pentagon hacker: 'It was easy'

Published: Thursday, 31 July 2008, 11:31PM

A British UFO enthusiast who hacked into computers at the Pentagon has said it was "easy".

Unemployed Gary McKinnon, 42, faces life in jail if he is convicted in the United States of sabotaging vital defence systems in the wake of 9/11.

He admitted hacking into Pentagon computers as well as systems used by the US military and NASA in search of material on extra-terrestrial technology.

Mr McKinnon was never charged in Britain after admitting accessing 97 US military and Nasa computers from the bedroom of his girlfriend's aunt's house in north London.

But he could be sent to Guantanamo Bay as a terror suspect if the US succeeds in extradition proceedings.

He told ITV News: "What I was doing was illegal but at the time I felt it was morally right in view of getting hold of the technology and getting it to the public.

"It was actually easy, getting into the Pentagon."