Weev
| weev | |
|---|---|
weev in 2010
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| Born |
Andrew Alаn Escher Auernheimer September 1, 1985 Fayetteville, Arkansas |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Internet trolling and hacktivism |
Andrew Alan Escher Auernheimer (/ˈɔːrənhaɪmər/ AW-rən-hy-mər; born September 1, 1985), best known by his pseudonym weev, is an American black hat hacker, and Internet troll. He has identified himself using a variety of aliases to the media, although most sources correctly provide his first name as Andrew. He is a member of an antisemitic network of computer hackers that wages cyber-attacks against universities.
Auernheimer claimed responsibility for the reclassification of many books on gay issues as pornography on Amazon's services in April 2009. Amazon said that Auernheimer was not responsible for the incident. Even before the Amazon incident, several media publications profiled Auernheimer regarding his hacking and trolling activities, notably The New York Times, in which he claimed to be a member of a hacker group called “the organization,” making $10 million annually. He also claimed to be the owner of a Rolls-Royce Phantom. After the Times story on Auernheimer was published, reporters sought out Auernheimer for commentary on hacking-related stories. Gawker published a story on the Sarah Palin email hacking incident and prominently featured Auernheimer's comments in the title of the story.
Auernheimer is a member of the group of computer experts known as "Goatse Security" that exposed a flaw in AT&T security which allowed the e-mail addresses of iPad users to be revealed. Contrary to what it first claimed, the group revealed the security flaw to Gawker Media before AT&T had been notified, and also exposed the data of 114,000 iPad users, including those of celebrities, the government and the military. The group's actions rekindled public debate on the disclosure of security flaws. Auernheimer maintains that Goatse Security used common industry standard practices and has said that "we tried to be the good guys".Jennifer Granick of the Electronic Frontier Foundation has also defended the tactics used by Goatse Security.
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Wikipedia