In an recent interview, IT expert Gary McKinnon candidly revealed detail on his NASA data breach and finding documents on ‘extraterrestrial life’.

IT expert and so-called hacker Gary McKinnon has claimed in an interview with RichPlanet TV that he came across information relating to UFOs and extraterrestrial life during his infamous foray into NASA’s computer system.

Mr. McKinnon, who breached the security defences of NASA and US military networks between February 2001 and March 2002, said that he found a document entitled “non-terrestrial officers”.

This excel sheet, he explained, had the ranks and names of unknown individuals. Furthermore, Mr. McKinnon went on to say, another sheet had tabs for “material transfers between ships”.

When he tried to search for the names of the ships – approximately eight to 10 in total – he was unable to come across anything that mentioned them (at least in public), reinforcing his assessment that these were part of a covert and non-terrestrial US initiative.

“It wasn’t a standard thing in the military at all, so I took that to be that they must have a secret space-based [program],” he noted, although he conceded it was open to interpretation that it could be another term for astronauts.

He was able to access these top secret documents through a program called Landsearch, which, after having gained control over the domain, had the ability to search all the files and folders “on every machine”.

Following his arrest in 2002, Mr McKinnon was subject to a lengthy and divisive legal quarrel concerning his extradition to the US, where prosecutors wanted him to stand trial for the data breach.

If convicted, he would have likely faced up to 60 years behind bars. However, in 2012, Theresa May, the UK’s home secretary, said that he would not be sent to the US, justifying this decision on human rights grounds.

She said at the time: “Mr McKinnon is accused of serious crimes. But there is also no doubt that he is seriously ill. He has Asperger’s syndrome, and suffers from depressive illness.

“The legal question before me is now whether the extent of that illness is sufficient to preclude extradition.

“After careful consideration of all of the relevant material, I have concluded that Mr McKinnon’s extradition would give rise to such a high risk of him ending his life that a decision to extradite would be incompatible with Mr McKinnon’s human rights.”