AT&T Hacker Sentenced to 3.5 Years in Prison

A hacker charged with federal crimes for obtaining the personal data of more than 100,000 iPad owners from AT&T’s publicly accessible website was sentenced on Monday to 41 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Andrew Auernheimer, 26, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, was found guilty last November in federal court in New Jersey of one count of identity fraud and one count of conspiracy to access a computer without authorization after he and a colleague created a program to collect information on iPad owners that had been exposed by a security hole in AT&T's web site.

"I think it was necessary to inform the public in this particular manner. I know some people are criticizing us and calling it irresponsible, but we did our best effort to be good guys about it. We waited until the hole was patched. We didn't disclose the data except to a reporter who agreed to censor the relevant bits. We felt it was in the public's best interest," Auernheimer said about the attack.

Normally Auernheimer's predicament might not have attracted much attention. But he was convicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a controversial law that was enacted to deter intrusions into NORAD, but was expanded over time to criminalize terms of use violations - including, according to federal prosecutors, lying about your personal information when using social networks. There's now a growing effort, including legislation drafted in the U.S. Congress, to reform the CFAA.

Read more -here-

• Federal regulators accuse Amazon executives of deleting messages
• FCC restores net neutrality rules
• US moves to force ByteDance to sell TikTok
• Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses can now play Apple Music
• Apple's AI will work without an Internet connection
• Tesla recalls new Cybertrucks over accelerator hazard