The House of Lords saw no reason to overturn the decision to send McKinnon to face trial in the US, though he is expected now to turn to the European Court of Human Rights.

McKinnon's case against extradition centred on his claims that he had been offered 'plea bargains' by American prosecutors, which he said were contrary to the principles of English law.

"The US is making a clear stand that anyone making any attempts to compromise its computers and data, will face the consequences - in McKinnon's case, this means they're not going to give up until they've got their man," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

However, Cluley was unsympathetic to McKinnon's plight.

"Any form of hacking is illegal and should be punished as such, and hacking into US government networks is bound to come with harsh repercussions - anyone thinking about engaging in these types of activities in the future should think twice," he said.

Greg Day, a security analyst at McAfee, agreed that hacking was a serious offence.

"The virtual nature of cyber crime can mean that it does not evoke the same emotions as violent offences, however it can still cause real pain to those affected," said Day.

"Today's ruling marks a change in attitudes towards cyber crime and we can expect to see authorities in the future treating such incidents as seriously as any other major crime," Day continued.

McKinnon is accused of crashing the US Army's Washington network for 24 hours and also rendering US Navy weapons systems temporarily unusable in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks.

If the extradition goes ahead and McKinnon is found guilty, he could face 10 years in a US jail.

www.sophos.com

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