14 DAY TRIAL // Gary McKinnon, famous for hacking into multiple computer systems of the US government in search of UFO-related evidence, has founded a company that provides search engine optimization (SEO) services.
Called Small SEO, the company addresses small businesses and individuals that want to improve their rank in Google search results. McKinnon says that all the clients so far have reached the first page in Google results for the primary keywords.
Since it does not aim too big, Small SEO charges low rates for the services, McKinnon saying that the fee is £40 / $68 / €50 per hour, and only five or six hours of work are needed for most of the customers. Getting to the first page of the search results should occur within up to three months.
McKinnon’s past is tied to a series of break-ins, between 2001 and 2002, into computer systems belonging to various US government entities, which led to a 10-year long legal battle over his extradition to the US.
His extradition was blocked in October 2012 on the grounds that the hacker was likely to commit suicide if the US request would have been granted, because MicKinnon suffered from Asperger’s syndrome, which is a form of autism. In December 2012, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that he would not face charges in the UK.
The Scottish hacker was accused of penetrating 97 US military (army, air-force and navy) and NASA computer systems in a period of 13 months, from February 2001 to March 2012.
At the time, he said that he was in search of critical information about UFOs he believed was available on the breached computers, and that there was no malicious intent in his actions.
After learning that the US military used Windows on their computers and relied on commercially available software, he allegedly conducted the hacking activity from his girlfriend's aunt's house in London, using the handle “Solo.”
He was obsessed with the idea that American intelligence agencies had access to extra-terrestrial technology, which could be the key to free, non-polluting energy.
His obsession was consistent with the form of autism he suffered from. An expert in autism diagnosed McKinnon with Asperger’s syndrome in 2008 after watching him in a television interview.
It appears that breaking into the US government networks was not too difficult, as many of the machines lacked firewall protection and strong password protection.
Had he been found guilty, he would have faced a 70 years prison sentence and fines of about $2 / €1.48 million. One of the prosecutors labeled his activity as one of the biggest military computer hacks.
It is said that the breach caused damages worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and that he modified and erased information on the systems of a US Naval Air Station after the terrorist attacks in September 2001, rendering the computers unusable.