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AT&T hacker Andrew 'Weev' Auernheimer's fraud conviction gets reversed
Like him or not, Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer has been at the center of a legal maelstrom ever since he helped collect email addresses of 114,000 iPad owners that AT&T left unsecured and shared the news with Gawker in 2010. In November 2012, he was found guilty of identity fraud and conspiracy to access a computer without authorization. In March 2013, he was ordered to pay $73,000 and was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison. And today, the verdict that put weev behind bars has been reversed. In his words, he was arrested for "arithmetic" -- all he claims to have done was fiddle with a URL and spilled the beans about what he found. Here's the thing though: Weev isn't free because his legal team artfully conveyed the distinction between hacking and incrementing a number at the end of a URL. He's free because the Third Circuit Court of Appeals decided he (who lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas at the time) wasn't tried in the right court.
Hacker sentenced to 41 months for exploiting AT&T iPad security flaw
Hacker Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer was found guilty last year of spoofing iPad user IDs to gain access to an AT&T email database, and he's now been sentenced to 41 months in prison. The time was chalked up to one count of identity fraud and one count of conspiracy to access a computer without authorization. In addition to the nearly three and a half years behind bars, Auernheimer also faces another three years of supervised release, and restitution payments of $73,000 to AT&T. Prosecutors in the case were asking for a four-year sentence, and reports say that they used both a Reddit Ask Me Anything post that Auernheimer did as well as quotes from the Encyclopedia Dramatica wiki. Auernheimer did give a statement before the sentencing, where he both read out a John Keats poem, and said that he was "going to jail for doing arithmetic." Auernheimer has promised that he will appeal the sentencing, so this may not be the last we've heard of "Weev" just yet.
Hacker pleads guilty to AT&T iPad breach
Nearly six months after his arrest, one hacker pleaded guilty to charges that he exposed the email addresses of over 100,000 AT&T iPad 3G users. It's been a year since Daniel Spitler and his compatriot, Andrew Auernheimer, coaxed Ma-Bell servers into delivering the goods, with a brute force script they lovingly named the iPad 3G Account Slurper. The hacker's plea agreement suggests a 12 to 18-month sentence, which is a lot more lenient than the 10-year maximum we hear he could face. Spitler's collaborator is apparently still in plea negotiations with the prosecutor. Both men initially claimed they were just trying to draw attention to a security hole, but maybe next time they'll think twice before embarking on such altruistic endeavors.
Two arrested for iPad security breach
Two arrests have been made connected to the security breach that exposed thousands of iPad users' email addresses and other info last year. Daniel Spitler and Andrew Auernheimer (yeah, that guy again) have been taken into custody and charged with conspiracy to access a computer without authorization and fraud, for allegedly using a custom script (built by Spitler) called iPad 3G Account Slurper to access AT&T's servers, mimic an iPad 3G, and try out random ICC identifiers. Once a valid ICC was found, one could harvest the user's name and email address. Of course, the hackers maintain that this was all done to force AT&T to close a major security flaw, and we'll be interested to see what exactly the company does to make things right.
AT&T hacker's home raided, drugs found, dude detained (update)
Man, one day you have the whole world's ear to talk about slack network security, and the next you're in the joint. Andrew Auernheimer, Goatse Security's hacker-in-chief and a key player in the unearthing of a major security flaw exposing iPads surfing AT&T's airwaves, is today facing felony charges for possession of a variety of potent drugs. That wouldn't be such intriguing news by itself, but the discovery was made by local law enforcers who were in the process of executing an FBI search warrant. Hey, wasn't the FBI going to look into this security breach? Yes indeedy. While nobody is yet willing to identify the reasons behind this warrant, it's not illogical to surmise that Andrew's crew and their online exploits were the cause for the raid. So there you have it folks, it's the first bit of advice any publicist will give you: if you're gonna step out into the glaring light of public life, you'd better clean out your closet first. Update: Before y'all get in an uproar about "white hacker this" and "Police State that," let's keep in mind that this Andrew Auernheimer character (a.k.a. "Weev") is one unsavory dude (not to mention a raving anti-Semite): check out this New York Times piece on Internet Trolls if you don't believe us. After all, it's not really a stretch that law enforcement might be after someone who's in possession of ecstasy, cocaine, LSD, and various other pharmaceuticals.
