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Hacker ‘Weev’ gets 41 months for exploiting AT&T vulnerability, exposing iPad records to publication


Andrew ‘weev’ Auernheimer was sentenced today for his role in the 2010 ‘hack’ of AT&T’s iPad database in which he and an accomplice brute forced a weakness in AT&T’s network to gain access to the names and other details of iPad owners on AT&T’s network. His security group, ‘Goatse’ (don’t Google it), then showed the information to Gawker. It published some of the more famous names in the records including entertainment stars, active duty Congressmen, and high-ranking military figures.

Auernheimer was charged by a Newark, N.J., grand jury with one count of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers and one count of identity theft in July of 2011.

In the initial search of Weev’s home, FBI agents also ‘discovered’ a cache of schedule 2 and 3 drugs including LSD, Ecstasy, and Cocaine.

Although he seems to be a particularly unsavory character, his case has drawn a lot of attention because of the contention “that he did not illegally access a private server and he wasn’t able to gain a list of user passwords — which was confirmed during testimony.”

Weev did a Reddit AMA last night, and his pre-sentencing NSFW video below.

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Avatar for Seth Weintraub Seth Weintraub

Publisher and Editorial Director of the 9to5/Electrek sites.


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