weev

weev
weev in 2010
Born Andrew Alаn Escher Auernheimer
(1985-09-01) September 1, 1985
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Nationality American
Known for Internet trolling, hacktivism, Neo-Nazism, Alt-right activism

Andrew Alan Escher Auernheimer[1] (/ˈɔːrənhaɪmər/ OR-ən-hy-mər;[2] born September 1, 1985), best known by his pseudonym weev, is an American computer hacker[3][4] affiliated with the alt-right.[5][6] The Southern Poverty Law Center describes him as "a neo-Nazi white supremacist" known for "extremely violent rhetoric advocating genocide of non-whites".[5] He has identified himself using a variety of aliases to the media, although most sources correctly provide his first name as Andrew.[4][7]

As a member of the hacker group Goatse Security, Auernheimer exposed a flaw in AT&T security that compromised the e-mail addresses of iPad users. In revealing the flaw to the media, the group also exposed personal data from over 100,000 people, which led to a criminal investigation and indictment for identity fraud and conspiracy. Auernheimer was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison, of which he served approximately 13 months before the conviction was vacated by a higher court.

In 2016, Auernheimer was responsible for sending thousands of white-supremacist flyers to unsecured web-connected printers at multiple universities and other locations in the U.S. Since his release from prison, he has lived in a variety of locations in Eastern Europe. In 2017, it was reported that he was acting as webmaster for the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer.[8][9]

Early hacking and trolling

Auernheimer claimed responsibility for the reclassification of many books on gay issues as pornography on Amazon's services in April 2009.[10][11] Amazon said that he was not responsible for the incident.[12] Even before the Amazon incident, several media publications profiled him regarding his hacking and trolling activities, including The New York Times, in which he claimed to be a member of a hacker group called "the organization," making $10 million annually. He also claimed to be the owner of a Rolls-Royce Phantom.[13][14][15] After the Times story on Auernheimer was published, reporters sought him out for commentary on hacking-related stories. Gawker published a story on the Sarah Palin email hacking incident and prominently featured Auernheimer's comments in the title of the story.[16]

In 2008, Auernheimer claimed responsibility in a New York Times interview for harassing the author and game developer Kathy Sierra in response to her "touchy" reaction to receiving threatening comments on her blog.[13][17] This included posting a false account of her career online, including charges that she was a former sex worker, along with her home address and Social Security number.[17][18] The post instigated further harassment and abuse of Sierra, which led her to withdraw from online activity for several years.[19][20][21]

He is a member of the Gay Nigger Association of America,[22] an anti-blogging trolling group who take their name from the 1992 Danish movie Gayniggers from Outer Space.[23] Members of Goatse Security involved with the iPad hack are also members of GNAA.[24][22] He was also formerly GNAA's president.[25]

AT&T data breach

Auernheimer is a member of the group of computer experts known as "Goatse Security" that exposed a flaw in AT&T security which allowed the e-mail addresses of iPad users to be revealed.[26] Contrary to what it first claimed, the group revealed the security flaw to Gawker Media before AT&T had been notified,[27] and also exposed the data of 114,000 iPad users, including those of celebrities, the government and the military. The group's actions rekindled public debate on the disclosure of security flaws.[28] Auernheimer maintains that Goatse Security used common industry standard practices and has said that "we tried to be the good guys".[3][28] Jennifer Granick of the Electronic Frontier Foundation has also defended the methods used by Goatse Security.[28]

Investigation

The FBI opened an investigation into the incident,[29] which led to a criminal complaint in January 2011 under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.[24]

Shortly after the investigation was opened, Auernheimer's home in Arkansas was raided by the FBI and local police. The FBI search was related to its investigation of the AT&T security breach, but he was subsequently detained on state drug charges.[30] Police allege that, during their execution of the search warrant related to the AT&T breach, they found cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, and Schedule 2 and 3 pharmaceuticals.[31] He was released on a $3,160 bail pending state trial.[32] After his release on bail, he broke a gag order to protest what he maintained were violations of his civil rights. In particular, he disputed the legality of the search of his house and denial of access to a public defender. He also asked for donations via PayPal, to defray legal costs.[3][33]

In January 2011, all drug-related charges were dropped immediately following Auernheimer's arrest by federal authorities. The U.S. Justice Department announced that he would be charged with one count of conspiracy to access a computer without authorization and one count of fraud.[34] Although his co-defendant, Daniel Spitler, was quickly released on bail, Auernheimer was initially denied bail because of his unemployment and lack of a family member to host him. He was incarcerated in the Federal Transfer Center, Oklahoma City before being released on $50,000 bail in late February 2011.[2][35]

Indictment

A federal grand jury in Newark, New Jersey, indicted Auernheimer with one count of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers and one count of identity theft in July 2011.[36] In September 2011, he was freed on bail and raising money for his legal defense fund.[37]

On November 20, 2012, Auernheimer was found guilty of one count of identity fraud and one count of conspiracy to access a computer without authorization.[38]

On November 29, 2012, Auernheimer wrote an article in Wired entitled "Forget Disclosure – Hackers Should Keep Security Holes to Themselves," advocating the disclosure of any zero-day exploit only to individuals who will "use it in the interests of social justice."[39]

In a January 2013 TechCrunch article,[40] he likened his prosecution to that of Aaron Swartz, writing

[...]Aaron dealt with his indictment so badly because he thought he was part of a special class of people that this didn't happen to. I am from a rundown shack in Arkansas. I spent many years thinking people from families like his got better treatment than me. Now I realize the truth: The beast is so monstrous it will devour us all.

On March 18, 2013, after being found guilty of identity fraud and conspiracy to access a computer without authorization, Auernheimer was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $73,000 in restitution.[41] Just prior to his sentencing, he posted an "Ask Me Anything" thread on Reddit;[42] comments such as "I hope they give me the maximum, so people will rise up and storm the docks" and "My regret is being nice enough to give AT&T a chance to patch before dropping the dataset to Gawker. I won't nearly be as nice next time" were cited by the prosecution the next day in court as justification for the sentence.[43]

Later in March 2013, civil rights lawyer and George Washington University Law School faculty Orin Kerr joined Auernheimer's legal team, free of charge.[44]

Conviction overturned

Auernheimer was serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Allenwood Low, a low-security federal prison in Pennsylvania, and was scheduled for release in January 2016.[45] On July 1, 2013, his legal team filed a brief with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that his convictions should be reversed because he had not violated the relevant provisions of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.[46][47]

On April 11, 2014, the Third Circuit issued an opinion vacating Auernheimer's conviction, on the basis that the venue in New Jersey was improper.[48][49] While the judges did not address the substantive question on the legality of the site access, they were skeptical of the original conviction, noting that no circumvention of passwords had occurred and that only publicly accessible information was obtained.[50] He was released from prison on April 11, 2014.[51]

After prison

In October 2014, Auernheimer published an article in the neo-Nazi blog The Daily Stormer in which he revealed himself to be a white nationalist. He displayed photographs of his tattoos, one in the shape of a Swastika. He described his prison time as "thousands of hours yelling the Eddas at the top of my lungs and scrawling runes on the concrete walls."[52] In 2012, he told Gawker that he had Jewish ancestry, and also claimed to have converted to Mormonism. According to Gawker, "Auernheimer deploys a peculiar rhetorical strategy that he's learned to work to his advantage: he peppers his conversation with bizarre but true facts and historical references—he has an encyclopedic knowledge of ancient Greek history, world religions and contemporary U.S. anti-government extremists, among other things—then hits you with dubious details about his own life."[53]

According to PandoDaily, Auernheimer was living in Lebanon as of 2014 in order to avoid prosecution in the United States.[54] In 2016, he told an interviewer that he was living in Kharkiv, Ukraine.[55] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, he was reported to have left Ukraine in 2017 for Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria, self-proclaimed republic in Eastern Europe.[5]

In October 2015, Auernheimer published the names of U.S. government employees who were exposed by the Adult FriendFinder and Ashley Madison data breaches.[56][57] He told CNN, "I went straight for government employees because they seem the easiest to shame."[58]

He has also been involved in the release of the undercover Planned Parenthood videos, which were under a temporary restraining order. The Washington Post quoted him as saying he did it "For the lulz."[59]

In a pair of incidents in 2016, Auernheimer sent flyers adorned with racist and anti-Semitic messages to thousands of unsecured printers across the U.S.; flyers bearing swastikas and promoting The Daily Stormer were sent to several universities.[60] He also claimed responsibility for 50,000 flyers sent to printers across the U.S., urging the killing of black and Jewish children and praising Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a pair of terrorist attacks in Norway in 2011. He claimed to have used a tool to scour the Internet for unsecured printers, finding over a million vulnerable devices.[60]

An email leak by BuzzFeed News in October 2017 revealed that weev was in contact with Breitbart News personality Milo Yiannopoulos, who had asked weev for advice on an article about the alt-right. It was also revealed that Yiannopoulos had asked his editor for permission for weev to appear on his podcast, which was rejected as the editor did not want Breitbart to associate with a "legit racist".[61]

In 2017, Auernheimer was reported to be working as the webmaster for The Daily Stormer.[8][9] Despite his neo-Nazi affiliations, Auernheimer's mother has stated that he is partly of Jewish descent.[8][62]

Fourteen Words

Auernheimer has referenced the neo-Nazi slogan the Fourteen Words in various computer transactions.[63] He has explicitly discussed the topic on social media, including asking his supporters "Do you know the 14 Words?"[64]

References

  1. ↑ Wallworth, Adam (January 19, 2011). "Fayetteville man charged in e-mail scam". NWA Online. NWA Media. Retrieved August 20, 2011.
  2. 1 2 Voigt, Kurt (January 21, 2011). "No bail for 2nd iPad e-mail address theft suspect". MSNBC.com. Associated Press. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 John Leyden (July 7, 2010). "AT&T iPad 'hacker' breaks gag order to rant at cops". The Register.
  4. 1 2 Mills, Elinor (June 10, 2010). "Hacker defends going public with AT&T's iPad data breach (Q&A)". CNET News.
  5. 1 2 3 "Andrew 'weev' Auernheimer". Montgomery, Ala.: Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved July 4, 2018.
  6. ↑ "From Alt Right to Alt Lite: Naming the Hate". New York, N.Y.: Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved July 8, 2018. Andrew Auernheimer aka Weev is a white supremacist and anti-Semite, as well as a notorious American hacker and online troll [...] Auernheimer writes for the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website, and was responsible for the anti-Semitic flier sent to thousands of networked printers at campuses across the country in 2016, which was a harbinger of the alt right's efforts to recruit at college campuses.
  7. ↑ Elinor Mills (June 15, 2010). "Hacker in AT&T-iPad Security Case Arrested". CBS News.
  8. 1 2 3 Gutman, Rachel (February 14, 2018). "Who is Weev? And why did he derail a journalist's career?". The Atlantic.
  9. 1 2 Windolf, Jim (February 13, 2018). "After a Twitter Storm, The Times and a New Hire Part Ways". The New York Times.
  10. ↑ Thomas, Owen (April 13, 2009). "Why It Makes Sense That a Hacker's Behind Amazon's Big Gay Outrage". Gawker.com. Gawker Media. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  11. ↑ Fowler, Geoffrey A. (April 14, 2009). "Did "Weev" Play a Role in Amazon "Error?"". WSJ Blogs. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  12. ↑ Thomas, Owen (April 13, 2009). "Amazon.com Says 'Embarrassing' Error, Not Hacker, Censored 57,310 Gay Books". Gawker.com. Gawker Media. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  13. 1 2 Schwartz, Mattathias (August 3, 2008). "The Trolls Among Us". NYTimes.com. The New York Times Company. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  14. ↑ Thomas, Owen (August 3, 2008). "Journalists do it for the lulz". Gawker.com. Gawker Media. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  15. ↑ Birch, Alex (August 8, 2008). "Interview: Professional Hacker and Troll Weev". Corrupt. CORRUPT.org. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  16. ↑ Moe (September 18, 2008). "Hacker From That Times Story On Palin Emails: "i wish they'd done it properly"". Gawker.com. Gawker Media. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  17. 1 2 Citron, Danielle K. (2014). Hate Crimes in Cyberspace. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-67-436829-3.
  18. ↑ Reagle, Joseph M., Jr. (2015). Reading the Comments: Likers, Haters, and Manipulators at the Bottom of the Web. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-26-202893-6.
  19. ↑ Poland, Bailey (2016). Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online. Lincoln, Neb.: Potomac Books. pp. 26–27. ISBN 978-1-61-234766-0.
  20. ↑ Phillips, Whitney (2015). This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-26-202894-3.
  21. ↑ Souppouris, Aaron (2013-09-12). "The end of kindness: weev and the cult of the angry young man". The Verge. Retrieved 2014-05-06.
  22. 1 2 Chokshi, Niraj (June 10, 2010). "Meet one of the hackers who exposed the iPad security leak". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
  23. ↑ Dean, Jodi (2010). Blog Theory: Feedback and Capture in the Circuits of Drive. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. p. 6. ISBN 9780745649702. Retrieved July 27, 2010.
  24. 1 2 United States District Court — District Court of New Jersey, Docket: MAG 11-4022 (CCC). Filed with the court January 13, 2011
  25. ↑ Hern, Alex (7 May 2015). "Twitter blocks promoted tweets by notorious white supremacist". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  26. ↑ Spencer Ante and Ben Worthen (June 11, 2010). "FBI Opens Probe of iPad Breach". Wall Street Journal.
  27. ↑ Foresman, Chris (January 19, 2011). "Goatse Security trolls were after "max lols" in AT&T iPad hack". Ars Technica. Retrieved November 22, 2012.
  28. 1 2 3 Worthen, Ben; Spencer E. Ante (June 14, 2010). "Computer Experts Face Backlash". WSJ.com.
  29. ↑ Tate, Ryan (June 9, 2010). "Apple's Worst Security Breach: 114,000 iPad Owners Exposed". Gawker.com. Gawker Media. Retrieved June 13, 2010.
  30. ↑ Dowell, Andrew (June 17, 2010). "Programmer Detained After FBI Search". The Wall Street Journal.
  31. ↑ Mills, Elinor (June 15, 2010). "Hacker in AT&T-iPad security case arrested on drug charges". CNET News. CNET News. Retrieved July 11, 2010.
  32. ↑ Emspak, Jesse; Perna, Gabriel (June 17, 2010). "Arrested Hacker's Web Site Reveals Extremist Views". International Business Times. International Business Times. Retrieved July 11, 2010.
  33. ↑ weev (July 5, 2010). "Hypocrites and Pharisees". Goatse.fr.
  34. ↑ "Criminal charges filed against AT&T iPad attackers". January 18, 2011.
  35. ↑ Porter, David (February 28, 2011). "Suspect in iPad Data Theft Released on Bail in NJ". ABC News. Associated Press. Retrieved March 2, 2011.
  36. ↑ Stempel, Jonathan (July 6, 2011). "iPad hacker Andrew Auernheimer indicted by Newark grand jury". Huffington Post. Reuters. Retrieved September 12, 2011.
  37. ↑ Mills, Elinor (September 12, 2011). "AT&T-iPad site hacker to fight it on in court". CNET News. CNET News. Retrieved September 12, 2011.
  38. ↑ Zetter, Kim (November 20, 2012). "Hacker Found Guilty of Breaching AT&T Site to Obtain iPad Customer Data". Threat Level. Wired. Retrieved April 30, 2013.
  39. ↑ Auernheimer, Andrew (November 29, 2012). "Forget Disclosure — Hackers Should Keep Security Holes to Themselves". Wired. Retrieved April 30, 2013.
  40. ↑ Auernheimer, Andrew (January 23, 2013). "iPad Hack Statement of Responsibility". techcrunch.com. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  41. ↑ Zetter, Kim (January 23, 2013). "iPad Hack Statement Of Responsibility". wired.com. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
  42. ↑ weev (March 17, 2013). "I am weev. I may be going to prison under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act tomorrow at my sentencing. AMA". Reddit. Retrieved April 30, 2013.
  43. ↑ Brian, Matt (March 18, 2013). "Andrew 'weev' Auernheimer sentenced to 41 months for exploiting AT&T iPad security flaw". The Verge. Retrieved April 30, 2013.
  44. ↑ Crook, Jordan (March 22, 2013). "Andrew 'weev' Auernheimer Obtains New Lawyer, Files Appeal". TechCrunch.
  45. ↑ "Inmate Locator: Register # 10378-010". Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
  46. ↑ Kerr, Orin (July 1, 2013). "Appellant's Brief Filed in United States v. Auernheimer". The Volokh Conspiracy. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  47. ↑ "Orin Kerr's Appeal Brief for Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer – Another CFAA Case". Groklaw. July 2, 2013. Retrieved July 7, 2013.
  48. ↑ "Case: 13-1816 Document: 003111586090" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-05-06.
  49. ↑ Kravets, David (April 11, 2014). "Appeals court reverses hacker/troll "weev" conviction and sentence". Ars Technica. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
  50. ↑ Hill, Kashmir (April 11, 2014). "Weev Freed, But Court Punts On Bigger 'Hacking vs. Security Research' Question". Forbes. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
  51. ↑ Voreacos, David (April 14, 2014). "AT&T Hacker 'Weev' Parties and Tweets as Case Still Looms". Bloomberg. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
  52. ↑ Andrew Anglin. "What I Learned from My Time in Prison". Daily Stormer.
  53. ↑ Chen, Adrien. "The Internet's Best Terrible Person Goes to Jail: Can a Reviled Master Troll Become a Geek Hero?". Gawker.com. Gawker Media. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  54. ↑ "'weev' in Beirut: I can't go home until "most of the agents of the federal government are dead."". PandoDaily.
  55. ↑ Ludlow, Peter. "Interview with alt-right Pepemancer and Kek/Trump supporter, weev". alphavilleherald.com. The Alphaville Herald. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
  56. ↑ Brownlee, Lisa (9 October 2015). "Ashley Madison Users: Just When You Thought It Was Safe, Hactivist Ups The Ante". Forbes. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  57. ↑ Mullin, Joe (8 October 2015). ""Weev" threatens prosecutors with info from Ashley Madison leaks". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  58. ↑ Goldman, David; Pagliery, Jose (22 May 2015). "Adult dating site hack exposes sexual secrets of millions". CNN. Time Warner. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  59. ↑ Miller, Michael E. (23 October 2015). "Controversial blogger, infamous hacker team up to release remaining Planned Parenthood videos". The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  60. 1 2 Johnson, Alex. "Infamous Hacker 'Weev' Says He Blasted College Printers With Antisemitic Message". NBC News. Retrieved March 31, 2016.
  61. ↑ Bernstein, Joseph (5 October 2017). "Here's How Breitbart And Milo Smuggled Nazi and White Nationalist Ideas Into The Mainstream". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  62. ↑ Hayden, Michael E. (January 3, 2018). "Neo-Nazi Who Calls For 'Slaughter' of Jewish Children Is of Jewish Descent, His Mom Says". Newsweek.
  63. ↑ "How neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists profit from bitcoin". Business Insider. 11 January 2018.
  64. ↑ "Twitter blocks promoted tweets by notorious white supremacist". The Guardian. 7 May 2015.

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