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Jail Looms For Man Who Revealed AT&T Leaked iPad User E-Mails

Posted by Soulskill on from the doing-it-wrong dept.

concealment sends this quote from MIT's Technology Review: "AT&T screwed up in 2010, serving up the e-mail addresses of over 110,000 of its iPad 3G customers online for anyone to find. But Andrew Auernheimer, an online activist who pointed out AT&T's blunder to Gawker Media, which went on to publicize the breach of private information, is the one in federal court this week. Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation worry that should that charge succeed it will become easy to criminalize many online activities, including work by well-intentioned activists looking for leaks of private information or other online security holes. [Auernheimer's] case hasn't received much attention so far, but should he be found guilty this week it will likely become well known, fast."

6 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. He did it wrong, obviously by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Anon pastebin is the way.

  2. Prosecutors, these days.... by stox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    seem to be having increasing difficulty distinguishing the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law. Anything to add yet another successful prosecution to their resume with no concern as to the effects on others or the betterment of society.

    --
    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
  3. Weev is not an online activist. by Hatta · · Score: 4, Informative

    Weev is a troll. He's better known to /. as one of the "president" of the GNAA. An all around unpleasant fellow.

    The unfortunate thing about this case is that Weev didn't actually do anything wrong here. AT&T published the email addresses, it should be AT&T facing prison time.

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    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    1. Re:Weev is not an online activist. by NewWorldDan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      He did do something wrong here. Whatever his intentions, he was poking around AT&T's web server in a way he knew he shouldn't have been. Just because AT&T was wrong doesn't make him right. As an analogy, I often leave my car unlocked. If you take it, you're still a car thief, even if I should have taken better care of my car. In any event, you don't have to harvest 114k emails to demonstrate a problem.1 or 2 is adequate proof that there's a problem.

    2. Re:Weev is not an online activist. by grasshoppa · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The car analogy doesn't work here, as a website is inherently a publicly offered service, whereas your car is not. There really isn't a good analogy for this situation, as it doesn't really require an analogy in the first place.

      AT&T put private information on their public website. Mistake or not, their actions made the information public, not the defendant in this case.

      AT&T is obviously to blame here.

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      Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
  4. Re:Who in their right mind prosecutes this? by sdnoob · · Score: 4, Insightful

    at&t probably pursued and lobbied for charges to be filed so THEY look like the victim here instead of the people at the other end of those 110,000+ email addresses.