Threat Management

Federal appeals court overturns conviction of AT&T hacker “weev”

The conviction of Andrew “weev” Auernheimer has been overturned.

In 2013, Auernheimer was convicted and sentenced in New Jersey to 41 months in prison for taking advantage of a flaw on the AT&T website in 2010 that allowed him to obtain data on roughly 114,000 iPad users.

The decision, filed on Friday by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, was based entirely on venue, according to documents, which explains that 4,500 impacted New Jersey residents was the only thing tying the case to the state.

Dismissals and appeals were sought throughout the case, mainly because evidence presented at the trial showed that Auernheimer resided in Arkansas, his accomplice was in California, and the accessed servers were in Texas and Georgia.

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