Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer, the hacker who was once sent to prison for sharing 114,000 e-mail addresses of iPad users, says he has plotted a new revenge.
Weev's conviction and three-year prison term was overturned on jurisdictional grounds last year. But in an "open letter" sent today to two federal prosecutors by e-mail and posted on Twitter, Auernheimer says he will reveal private information about Department of Justice prosecutors who have attempted to cheat on their wives.
"The statements of prosecutors should be inviolate, and yet all around the country you have continually spewed nothing but lies in federal criminal cases," writes Auernheimer. "Even the most sacred personal oath that a man can take is a rotten joke to people like you: a promise of commitment to one's wife. We have located a number of US Attorneys within the Ashley Madison dataset using the resources of the taxpayer (offices, computers, paid time, and Internet connections) to attempt to cheat on their wives."
It wouldn't be the first time Auernheimer has tried to embarrass government employees using hacked data. When the dating site Adult FriendFinder was hacked earlier this year, he posted some of the data on Twitter, exposing a grab bag of government workers, including a Washington police academy commander, an FAA employee, a California state tax worker, and a naval intelligence officer, all of whom supposedly tried to cheat.
"I went straight for government employees because they seem the easiest to shame," he said at the time.
The new letter doesn't name any alleged adulterers, but it says information about lawyers in the office that prosecuted him "will be the first to be disclosed." Auernheimer says he and his colleagues will "broadcast your indiscretions to the world for months."
The e-mail is addressed to two federal prosecutors who worked to convict him under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Auernheimer refers to them in the e-mail as "my old friends." The Department of Justice declined to comment on the letter.
The letter says the leaks will be posted on GotNews.com, a news website that's known for making errors and for race-baiting coverage.
Over Twitter, Auernheimer told Ars that he's currently in rural Macedonia. He said that the information he intends to leak includes information about personnel at the Assistant US Attorney level in at least one office.
Auernheimer was convicted in 2012 of conspiring with co-defendant Daniel Spitler, who exploited a security flaw in AT&T's iPad registration scheme in order to download contact information for thousands of iPad users. He then passed along the e-mail addresses to Gawker, which thereafter published the information in redacted form. Auernheimer was convicted of a felony under the CFAA for conspiracy to access AT&T's servers against the company's will.
"Weev" has never been repentant about his conviction, saying at the time that he was "going to jail for doing arithmetic." This is at least the second time since his release that he's sought publicity with a long, angry letter to the government. Last year, he sent the feds an "invoice" for $13.2 million for his time in prison, payable in Bitcoin.
UPDATE: Auernheimer makes good on his promise and names at least one DOJ prosecutor.
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