From Kuji to Solo

In a field wrought with speculation and educated (and sometimes not so educated) opinions, there is a small section that stands on its own two legs with both technological and legal credibility. This section is unofficially known as UFO hacking. The name, although seeming rather self-evident, is the detailed, and sometimes arduous task of hacking into government funded, and/or military-centered computer systems in order to uncover information pertaining to the official research or activity of the UFO phenomenon.

Perhaps the most relevant case involving this came in a media frenzy back in 2001/2002 with a Scotsman named Gary McKinnon. His name was soon being whispered on the pages of almost every major newspaper in the United States and abroad. With recent talks between President Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron, McKinnon remains in a legal limbo of extradition to the Unites States because of his hacking of sensitive material within the confines of over ninety-seven military and NASA-owned computer systems over a thirteen month period. According to one U.S. prosecutor, McKinnon's actions were being viewed as “the biggest military hack of all time.” And although widely publicized, this wasn't the first major breach of sensitive material by a civilian. For that, we need to look a little over a decade prior to a hacker who, like McKinnon, suffered the slings and arrows of surveillance, threats, and possible prosecution.

Prelude to a Hack

At a young age, British-born Matthew Bevan was perceived as your typical adolescent. Bullied at times by his peers, he searched to find a community in which to fit within. And like so many loners, he found the world of computers to be his refuge. He would spend his nights on a Commodore Amiga 12, tapping into different online forums. This was back in the days of dial-up, so naturally, Bevan's phone bill would have been astronomical. But his first dive into the world of illegal activity came from a friend who offered Bevan a black-market program that would use tonation to fool the phone company into believing that no one was using the line. Surfing the Net for free, he soon tripped upon several bulletin boards dealing with UFOs. As he began making online friends and digging deeper into the topic, he heard rumors of classified UFO files floating around on different systems. Some of them belonging to NASA and the military. Bevan soon went from being an outcast in the real world to being a hacking prodigy in cyberspace.

And So It Begins

Known by his handle, Kuji, Bevan's first major hack was that of a program called FLEX (Force Level Execution) in 1994. This was at Rome Laboratories, located on Griffiss Air Force Base in Upstate New York. As he chiseled his way deeper into the system, he realized that with just a few more days, he had the potential to single-handedly launch missiles from the base. Wisely, he decided to veer his focus away from warfare and concentrated solely on trying to find any information related to highly advanced aircraft. Searching for space-related activity, he first looked at Goddard Space Center. He began to download and copy dozens of files that he had found about space-related technology. But this didn't seem to satisfy his appetite, and he then shifted his focus to a base that held a hefty reputation for supposedly storing the wreckage of a downed UFO.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, located near Dayton, Ohio, contained much lore within the confines of its secretive walls. But this didn't stop Bevan from finding his way in through the digital back door. After learning that Project Blue Book was created and housed in Wright Patterson, Bevan began searching endless files for anything that may have to do with the famous Roswell incident of 1947. As he began digging, he was surprised to discover that one of the system's accounts wasn't even password-protected. Other systems contained emails that different Wright-Patterson employees were sending back and forth about a certain aircraft that they had been developing. Diagrams showed a prototype that seemed to use anti-gravity propulsion, the technology theorized to propel many of the often-silent UFOs throughout witness history. With this information, Bevan hastily found his way out of the files at Wright-Patterson and thought he was in the clear. But what he didn't know was that his actions were being meticulously monitored. This is when his life took a nasty turn with a little help from both local and governmental authorities.

Hand in the Government Cookie Jar

It was now 1996, and Bevan was comfortably employed at an insurance agency doing computer work in his hometown of Cardiff, Wales. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly for him until the day he was called into the office of one of his superiors. Thinking that he was being requested for a quick evaluation of an office computer system, he was instead visited by a handful of men who later identified themselves as local authorities and members of Scotland Yard. In cinematic fashion, blinds in the room were drawn, making Bevan very uneasy. Clearly, this wasn't about anything work- related. One of the men offered Bevan a handshake and bluntly explained to him that he was being put under arrest. When Bevan asked what he was being accused of, the man simply told him that he was under arrest for hacking both Wright-Patterson and NASA.

One of You Will Betray Me

To understand the complexity of Bevan's arrest, one must look back to 1994 when he first began his hacking activity and how he was identified. The D.I.S.A (Defense Information Systems Agency) was the first to discover Bevan's hacks. Next came the A.F.I.W.C (Air Force Information Warfare Center) The hacks were traced to New York City-based internet provider, Mindvox. When Bevan had infiltrated the systems at Goddard Space Center and Griffiss Air Force Base, the monitoring had begun. It wasn't until the Wright-Patterson hack that the D.I.S.A and A.F.I.W.C thought that this person could potentially be an informant and/or hired hacker from a rival nation, specifically Russia or Iraq. Bevan, however, remained elusive. Both agencies failed to positively identify him on their own. Instead, they turned to other hackers. The people whom Bevan had learned from had subsequently become his digital Judas, spilling the beans on Bevan's identity and assuring the A.F.I.W.C that he was their man.

Legal Turmoil

Now detained, Bevan was thrown into a tornado of interrogations. The authorities questioned his past, his methods, and ultimately, his motives. He was bombarded with inquisitions primarily connected to his hacks within Wright-Patterson. The term, Hangar 18 was being tossed around at an alarming rate. Bevan complied with every question, spouting answers about the information he had uncovered about supposed anti-gravity propulsion technology. He was asked if he had any political motivations in which he replied he had none. Clearly, this was boiling down to a case of espionage and possible military implications. Bevan remained truthful, explaining that he was simply searching for information pertaining to UFOs. With this, the authorities began to ease down, their tone becoming a bit more light as they began to peg this hacker as nothing more than “an X-Files idiot”, as one Scotland Yard member had once stated.

Even if Bevan's motives were far more innocent than the authorities had first inferred, he had still committed illegal activity, and there had to be a decision on how to prosecute him for his crimes. But to do so, they needed specific information from the American's about what Bevan had discovered. Stubborn to give up any evidence, the U.S. Government gave a cold shoulder to the prosecution, and because of this, the entire case against Bevan was dropped in 1997. After almost two years of monitoring, tracking down sources, and eventually nabbing their man, The U.S. Government hypocritically let him go with nothing more than a stern slap on the wrist. He was, however, told that if he ever stepped foot on American soil, he would be arrested on sight. Clearly, Bevan wasn't going to be visiting the International UFO Museum or Area 51 anytime soon.

Repeating the Past

With the case against him swept quietly under the rug for decades, Bevan went on with his life, never forgetting about the detailed chain of events that could have landed him in prison perhaps for rest of his life. But in 2001, his past came back to haunt him in the form of Gary McKinnon. Being charged with startlingly similar hacking activities under the handle, Solo, McKinnon's fate presently lies in the legal hands of the United States. Causing over $700,000 in damages and repairs of the systems he had hacked into, McKinnon remains terrified about being extradited to the United States where he could face up to seventy years in prison. Had he learned anything from Bevan, perhaps he wouldn't have even attempted to play with digital fire. And perhaps the race to uncover UFO information both hackers were ultimately chasing after would have eventually caught up to them. Either way, these men, although arrogant in their own ways, paved the way for civilians who will stop at nothing to uncover a truth they feel is being so deeply hidden from the public.

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Ryan Sprague is a professional playwright & screenwriter in New York City. He is also an investigative journalist specializing in the topic of UFOs. He has written for numerous publications, including Open Minds Magazine, Phenomena Magazine, and UFO Truth Magazine. Speaking on the UFO topic, he has been featured on ABC News, Fox News, and The Science Channel. He is also a regular on the Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Museum. Ryan is the co-host for both the Into the Fray & UFOmodPOD podcasts. Learn more at: www.somewhereintheskies.com