Gary McKinnon, 39, appeared on Wednesday at Bow Street Magistrate's Court in London for an extradition hearing on charges he gained unauthorised access to 97 US government computers, including machines belonging to NASA and the Department of Defence.
The US government alleges McKinnon accessed passwords and deleted critical files from the Earle US naval weapons station, causing the 300 computers in its network to shut down. In the process, he gained password information that could be useful to an enemy and caused the US Army's Washington military district to shut down its systems for about a day, the US authorities say.
Lawyers for the US said McKinnon's attacks cost government agencies about US$700,000. The Earle hack, which the US said left the entire network vulnerable to outside access, cost US$290,431.
McKinnon, however, said he only deleted files once, accidentally, and that he gained unauthorised access to military systems just to look for evidence of UFO conspiracies.
McKinnon's lawyers said he will be fighting the extradition on human rights grounds. If convicted, the north Londoner could face 70 years in jail.
The hearing has been adjourned until October 18 to give McKinnon's defence team more time to prepare its case.
Silicon.com's Jo Best reported from London. For more coverage from Silicon.com, click here.
"and that he gained unauthorised access to military systems just to look for evidence of UFO conspiracies"
Maybe they should send him to a psychiatric institution instead.