The authorities ’s case against
two men turn on with cut up into AT&T ’s Website to steal e - post addresses from about 120,000 iPad users get a rise last twelvemonth when a confidential source reach over 150 pages of New World chat log between the two and other members of their whoop mathematical group .
Excerpts from the logs , published in the court track record , apparently show them lecture about the effectual risk of their hacking escapade , as well as ways that they could maximise the embarrassment get by the incident . The logs were pass over to Union investigators in July by an unnamed source who monitored the homo ’s online IRC ( Internet Relay Chat ) conversation .
In a case that was unseal Tuesday , Andrew Auernheimer , 25 , and Daniel Spitler , 26 , are charge with fraud and confederacy to access a computer without authorization . prosecuting attorney say the two clear unauthorized accession to AT&T ’s server in other June 2010 , and then download 120,000 e-mail addresses and singular ICC - ID ( desegregate racing circuit bill of fare identifier ) number , used to name mobile gimmick , which they then handed over to the press .
They could confront five yr in prison on the bursting charge , the U.S. Department of Justice tell in apress release . Prosecutors say that the hacker write a program called iPad 3 G Account Slurper that launched a brute force attack against AT&T ’s servers , endeavor to approximate ICC - ID numbers and then pairing them to user email address .
Spitler had not speak publically about the incident , but in the day after it hit the insistency , Auernheimer gave several interviews , saying that the work was done by his chop group in parliamentary law to improve privacy for iPad users .
“ We believe what we did was honourable , ” Auernheimer toldComputerworld last June . “ What we did was right . ”
But in chat extract posted by prosecuting officer , the men seemed most interested in hit attending for their find . “ [ W]here can we drop this for max lols , ” asked Spitler in one exchange .
In another exchange , Spitler vex about whether the body of work is effectual and asks to rest anonymous . “ [ D]unno how legal this is or if they could action for damages , ” he said .
“ [ A]bsolutely may be legal jeopardy yeah , mostly civil , ” Auernheimer replied , accord to the transcript . “ [ A]bsolutely could get sue . ”
In another exchange , published after the medium had reported the break , Auernheimer apparently admitted that his group had not bring out the issuance to AT&T , grant to tourist court track record . “ [ Y]ou DID call tech financial support right ? ” expect one hacker , advert Nstyr . [ cq ] “ [ T]otally but not really , ” Auernheimer answer . “ [ I ] do n’t … fear [ I ] go for they sue me . ”
It ’s not clean who allow the log to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation , but around the time that happened someone anonymouslyposted the say name of the hacking chemical group ’s membersto the Full Disclosure posting list , penning , “ tending FBI – Want the real names folks involve in the iPad nag ? ? ? ” Spitler was among those identified in the post .
