The Military Imagination

In the Gary McKinnon hacking story
it was revealed that many of the supposedly
secure Pentagon computers that Mr Mckinnon
breached to find evidence for extra terrestrial
life had no password, and therefore no security.
Where there was a password it was, umm, 'password'.

Now Mr McKinnon is free from the request
to tried in the U.S, he may still be sued in the UK
for $100,000s to compensate for the effects
of his security breaches,
when he repeatedly tried to warn
them but they took the warning as proof of a breach.
It seems the preferred security the U.S. military
is to hound foreign hackers in the civil courts
of the country they control.

It was not Mr McKinnon's choice
to have aspergers, but it is ironic,
and part of that condition, that what
gave him the skill to hack also denied
him the recognition that intelligent aliens
in full awareness of their otherness
to humans are unlikely to leave evidence
of themselves in so unimaginative
and insecure a place as The Pentagon.