Andrew Auernheimer, a 27-year-old American computer hacker, was sentenced this week to three years and five months in prison for stealing personal data from nearly 120,000 iPad users. Among the list of those victimized were a television news anchor, a Hollywood movie producer and various mayors of large U.S. cities. Auernheimer was convicted in November last year by a New Jersey jury of one count of identity theft and one count of conspiracy to access AT&T servers without permission.
The U.S. Justice Department sought a sentence in the 33 - 41 month range, with U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton opting for the high-end of that range. Some very noteworthy "hackees" were Diane Sawyer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and movie producer Harvey Weinstein. "When it became clear that he was in trouble, he concocted the fiction that he was trying to make the Internet more secure, and that all he did was walk in through an unlocked door," U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said in a statement. "The jury didn't buy it, and neither did the court in imposing sentence."
Lawyer Tor Ekeland, who defended Auernheimer, noted, "If this is criminal, then tens of thousands of Americans are committing computer crimes every other day," Ekeland said in an interview. "There really was no harm." In fact, the government sought a 6-month sentence for a hacker who had conducted more aggressive moves recently, so there does seem to be a double standard at play, perhaps because Apple and its products are the, well...apple of the government's eye.
The U.S. Justice Department sought a sentence in the 33 - 41 month range, with U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton opting for the high-end of that range. Some very noteworthy "hackees" were Diane Sawyer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and movie producer Harvey Weinstein. "When it became clear that he was in trouble, he concocted the fiction that he was trying to make the Internet more secure, and that all he did was walk in through an unlocked door," U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said in a statement. "The jury didn't buy it, and neither did the court in imposing sentence."
Lawyer Tor Ekeland, who defended Auernheimer, noted, "If this is criminal, then tens of thousands of Americans are committing computer crimes every other day," Ekeland said in an interview. "There really was no harm." In fact, the government sought a 6-month sentence for a hacker who had conducted more aggressive moves recently, so there does seem to be a double standard at play, perhaps because Apple and its products are the, well...apple of the government's eye.