Network Security, Threat Management

Hacker ‘weev’ takes credit for mass printing of white supremacist fliers

White nationalist hacker Andrew Auernheimer, who goes by the online alias weev, has claimed responsibility for executing a command to printers across the open internet to print racist and anti-Semitic fliers. 

The fliers, which included imagery of swastikas, were recently printed en masse at universities across the U.S., according to a New York Times report, including Princeton University, the University of California, Berkeley; Smith College; Brown University; the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and Mount Holyoke College.

In his own blog post several days ago, Auernheimer explained that he used a commonly available port scanner to search across the internet for printers with open ports, discovering close to a million exposed machines. He says he then ran a script that commanded some of these exposed printers to print out the offensive literature, which references a neo-Nazi website. Revealing this vulnerability may have led other hackers to execute a follow-up mass printing of anti-LGBT fliers, which Auernheimer reportedly has claimed was not his doing.

Auernheimer was previously convicted of identity fraud and conspiracy to access a computer without authorization for his role in the 2010 hacking of AT&T's website. The conviction was later overturned. It is believed that Auernheimer now lives in Eastern Europe, according to NBC News.

Bradley Barth

As director of multimedia content strategy at CyberRisk Alliance, Bradley Barth develops content for online conferences, webcasts, podcasts video/multimedia projects — often serving as moderator or host. For nearly six years, he wrote and reported for SC Media as deputy editor and, before that, senior reporter. He was previously a program executive with the tech-focused PR firm Voxus. Past journalistic experience includes stints as business editor at Executive Technology, a staff writer at New York Sportscene and a freelance journalist covering travel and entertainment. In his spare time, Bradley also writes screenplays.

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