Appeals Court Overturns Conviction of AT&T Hacker Known as ‘Weev’

A federal appeals court reversed the conviction of Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer, a hacker and self-described Internet troll, who was accused of stealing the personal data of 114,000 Apple iPad users in 2010.

At the time, Auernheimer and Daniel Spitler, operating as part of a group called Goatse Security, gained national attention when they discovered a security loophole on AT&T’s website that allowed them to gain access to the addresses of the carrier’s customers and their corresponding iPad identification numbers.

In its decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said that the conviction of Auernheimer by a jury in Newark (NJ), and the subsequent 41-month prison sentence could not stand because the case did not belong in that state. Prosecutors had argued at the time that the case should be tried in New Jersey because AT&T’s servers were housed there. But an appeals court judge, writing in the unanimous three-person opinion, noted that evidence at Auernheimer’s trial showed that the servers that had been entered were in Texas and Georgia.