Alleged AT&T Ipad Email Hacker Andrew Auernheimer (“Weev”) Rejects Government Felony Plea Offer

On January 3, 2012 alleged AT&T iPad email hacker Andrew Auernheimer rejected the government’s felony plea offer. Mr. Auernheimer is charged with conspiracy to commit unauthorized access to a protected computer (AT&T’s iPad servers), illegal possession of email addresses, and destruction of evidence. Mr. Auernheimer has retained Tor Ekeland of Tor Ekeland, P.C. as his counsel.

On July 6, 2011 a Grand Jury in Newark, New Jersey indicted Mr. Auernheimer on one count of conspiracy under Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, to access a computer without authorization in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1030(a)(2)(C) and 1030 (c)(2)(B)(ii). Title 18 U.S.C. 1030 (c)(2)(B)(ii) elevates unauthorized access of a protected computer under Title 18 U.S.C. 1030(a)(2)(C) from a misdemeanor to a felony if the access is committed in violation of a state law. The Indictment alleges that because Mr. Auernheimer purportedly violated New Jersey’s unauthorized computer access statute, namely New Jersey State Code 2C:20-31(a), he has committed a felony rather than a misdemeanor. The Indictment also alleges that Mr. Auernheimer’s possession of email addresses and alleged destruction of evidence violates Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1028 (a) (7) and Section 2.

Between June 2, 2010 and June 15, 2010 the Indictment alleges that Mr. Auernheimer conspired with Daniel Spitler to gain unauthorized access to AT&T’s servers in order to obtain email addresses. Specifically, the Indictment maintains Mr. Auernheimer and Mr. Spitler wrote an iterative script that queried AT&T’s publicly accessible iPad servers. The Indictment alleges the iterative script was intended to mimic customer ICC I.D. numbers assigned to iPad 3G subscribers. According to an email to customers sent by AT&T Senior Vice President and Chief Privacy Officer Dorothy Attwood on June 13, 2010, when the iterative script queried AT&T’s servers with an ICC I.D. number matching that of an actual subscriber, a log in window appeared asking for a password and automatically populating (displaying) the email address of the subscriber in question. Thus, the Indictment is alleging that querying publicly accessible servers and harvesting non-password protected information is a federal felony.

Mr. Spitler has pleaded guilty, but Mr. Auernheimer vigorously maintains his innocence. Mr. Auernheimer maintains the script in question is little different from the scripts Google and Bing, among other prominent search engines, use to query publicly accessible servers for information. Under the Government’s theory of unauthorized access, millions of Americans are committing a federal felony every day simply by clicking Google search results for any non-password protected site if the owner of that site so decides the access was unauthorized.

Currently there is a continuance in the case until June while both sides prepare for trial.

Case: U.S. v. Andrew Auernheimer

Court: Federal District Court for the District of New Jersey

Docket No. 11-CR-470 (SDW)

Contact: Tor Ekeland, (347) 515 6849, tor@torekeland.com