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Story URL: http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39164025,00.htm

The A to Z of security
Got the Love Bug? Scared of spyware? Read all about what's keeping techies awake at night...

By Natasha Lomas

Published: Tuesday 14 November 2006

Extradition

The global reach of the internet has clear advantages when it comes to connecting up the world and enabling a worldwide exchange of data. But it has also given criminals the chance to exploit this connectivity - meaning they now have the opportunity to perpetrate cross-border crime without leaving home.

By its very nature, cyber crime is an international phenomenon - a virus, once unleashed, is not limited to a particular geographical region. '419' email scams may be associated with Nigeria, as the country where they commonly originate from, but victims of the fraud can hail from anywhere in the world.

Security from A to Z

Click on the links below to find out more...

A is for Antivirus
B is for Botnets
C is for CMA
D is for DDoS
E is for Extradition
F is for Federated identity
G is for Google
H is for Hackers
I is for IM
J is for Jaschan (Sven)
K is for Kids
L is for Love Bug
M is for Microsoft
N is for Neologisms
O is for Orange
P is for Passwords
Q is for Questions
R is for Rootkits
S is for Spyware
T is for Two-factor authentication
U is for USB sticks/devices
V is for Virus variants
W is for Wi-fi
X is for OS X
Y is for You
Z is for Zero-day

The worldwide threat posed by web-based crime has led to Europe and the US backing an international anti-cyber-crime treaty in an attempt to improve cross-border collaboration.

Extradition comes into play when the government of a country affected by cyber criminal activity wants to prosecute an alleged perpetrator who resides elsewhere in the world. Countries rely on existing extradition treaties to do this - where there is no treaty in place between two nations there will be no chance of a cyber criminal being handed over for prosecution.

Back in 2004, a US attempt to extradite Hew Raymond Griffiths, a 42-year-old computer programmer from New South Wales, Australia, for his alleged role in leading the DrinkorDie piracy group, failed after an Australian magistrate ruled the US had not provided enough info about specific instances of his alleged copyright infringement.

A higher-profile extradition attempt by the US involved the so-called Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon, a UK national who lives in north London. The extradition process started in 2002, after McKinnon was charged by a grand jury in New Jersey with intentionally damaging a federal computer system. The alleged hacks included breaking into systems belonging to the US Air Force, the US Army, the US Department of Defense, the US Navy and Nasa.

In 2005 McKinnon's extradition hearing began in London. His lawyers argued extradition would breach his human rights owing to the possibility of him being tried under US anti-terrorism laws which could see him being treated as a terrorist and jailed for up to 60 years. However this argument failed to sway the court. The presiding judge acknowledged McKinnon is likely to face a harsher sentence in the US than he would in the UK but he said: "It must be obvious to any defendant that if you chose to commit a crime in a foreign country you run the risk of being prosecuted in that country."

McKinnon's extradition was rubber-stamped back in July by Home Secretary John Reid - though he has yet to be handed over to US authorities.

A silicon.com reader poll showed strong sympathy for McKinnon's plight - with 65.5 per cent of respondents saying he should not face extradition to the US and should instead stand trial in the UK and serve any sentence here too.

Further controversy surrounds the McKinnon case because he is being extradited under the UK Extradition Act 2003. This was rushed into law after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and does not include a requirement for an extradition request from the US to contain prima facie evidence of the charges. The Act has also not been ratified by the US government, so while McKinnon is being extradited to the US under its terms, the UK government cannot extradite a US citizen to the UK.