Simon Says – Musings of a Technology CTO

Reported today by infosecurity-us and others, the two men (Andrew Auernheimer, 25, of Fayetteville, Ark., and Daniel Spitler, 26, of San Francisco, California) who had fleeting fame after publishing insecurities in the AT&T iPad website in June 2010 have been arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to access a computer without authorization, and one count of fraud in connection with personal information.  Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

You can find the formal press release on the Justice.gov site.

The original hack involved farming the subscriber details off AT&Ts site by presenting it with random ID codes. Unfortunately, while demonstrating a weakness in a site is often not prosecuted, the pair went on to retrieve 120,000 subscriber details and then passed them on Gawker, who published a redacted list amongst much fanfare. This distribution of personal data will probably get them into a lot of hot water. 

US Attorney Paul Fishman said of the matter:

“Hacking is not a competitive sport, and security breaches are not a game. Companies that are hacked can suffer significant losses, and their customers made vulnerable to other crimes, privacy violations, and unwanted contact. Computer intrusions and the spread of malicious code are a threat to national security, corporate security, and personal security. Those who use technological expertise for malicious purposes take note: your activities in cyberspace can have serious consequences for you in the real world.”

IBTimes.com had further things to say about how the pair may have caused trouble for themselves within seized chat logs – in particular the exchange below indicates the two knew their actions were illegal, and conspired to destroy any evidence of such.

Auernheimer: i would like get rid of your shit like are we gonna do anything else with this data?

Spitler: No should I toss it?

Auernheimer: i dont think so either might be best to toss

Spitler: yeah, I dont really give a f— about it the troll is done

Auernheimer: yes we emerged victorious

Spitler: script is going byebye too