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Hacker convicted by court of stealing the personal data of 120,000 AT&T Apple iPad users

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Hacker convicted by court of stealing the personal data of 120,000 AT&T Apple iPad users
On Tuesday, a Federal Court jury found 27 year old Andrew Auernheimer guilty of one count of conspiracy to access AT&T's servers without permission, as well as one count of identity theft. Auernheimer and a co-defendant were accused of hacking into the carrier's servers and stole email addresses and personal information belonging to 120,000 AT&T customers using the Apple iPad. The co-defendant, Daniel Spitler, pleaded guilty last year and is awaiting sentencing. Aurenheimer can receive 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count that he was convicted of, while Spitler is asking for a lighter 12-18 month sentence citing his cooperation..

Mug shot of defendant Andrew Auernheimer

Mug shot of defendant Andrew Auernheimer

Auernheimer and Spitler were part of a group of internet trolls called Goatse Security, and according to the prosecution, the pair used an "account slurper" that matched email addresses with "integrated circuit card identifiers" for Apple iPad users, and used a "brute force" attack to gsather information and data about those who used their iPad over AT&T's pipeline. To prove that they had obtained personal records for ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, some of the information was leaked to Gawker who published a story about the stolen information.

Aurenheimer is free on bail and his lawyer says he plans on appealing to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. After it's servers were compromised, AT&T shut down the feature on the Apple iPad that allowed email addresses to be obtained.

"We disagree with the prosecutors' interpretation of what constitutes unauthorized access to a computer under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act."=Tor Ekeland, defendant's lawyer

source: Reuters

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1. Mr_Hyde posted on 21 Nov 2012, 00:21 2

He had that coming...

2. AWiseGuy posted on 21 Nov 2012, 00:45 1

"We disagree with the prosecutors' interpretation of what constitutes unauthorized access to a computer under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act."=Tor Ekeland, defendant's lawyer

Oh this I HAVE to see.

3. nicholassss posted on 21 Nov 2012, 00:51 7

So homie could face up to 600,000 years in jail and $30,000,000 for that? murders and child molesters dont even get it that bad.

what a system

4. Bernoulli posted on 21 Nov 2012, 01:53 4

That's what happens when you mess with at&t and Apple, the richer get richer, and that's why I don't own an ipad nor am I with at&t

5. Mr_Hyde posted on 21 Nov 2012, 01:55

Yeah, unfortunately those kinds of sentences aren't isolated to possible cases such as this.

6. Bernoulli posted on 21 Nov 2012, 01:58

Well, hackers usually don't have much that they can be sued for, but I bet if this person had a 500 $ monthly income Apple would take every penny, and at&t is on the same line, taking people's money without mercy

7. Cynipap999 (banned) posted on 21 Nov 2012, 03:12 1

What an absolute iTravesty. Too bad these guys weren't 17, they could have had their records sealed and released from juvi' on their 18th birthdays, respectively. Where's the justice? Cop killers, murderers, child molesters, rapists, etc, see less judicial backlash for their crimes. God bless the American legal system. And, it's good to reaffirm AT&T's inferiority.

8. tedkord posted on 21 Nov 2012, 04:38

Hope he goes to prison and gets lotsa loving.

9. kach22 posted on 21 Nov 2012, 05:40 2

How is that possible? Apple claims that their security in iOS is top notch and second to none and that have been repeated again and again by their fans in this very pro Apple website.

12. chaoticrazor posted on 21 Nov 2012, 14:56

pmsl pro apple reviewer there is one on here yes.....but pro apple site dream on its android central on here especially in the comments

10. downphoenix posted on 21 Nov 2012, 12:18

The thing is, for those following this, they used publically available information to get this data.

11. Fallout09 posted on 21 Nov 2012, 12:42

I guess not everyone can be like Google. Google pays hackers for finding kinks in the armor. Pinkie Pie got $60K for finding a exploit in Chrome.

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