14 DAY TRIAL // Andrew Auernheimer, a key member of Goatse Security, has been arrested on a number of felony charges that are unrelated to the group’s exploitation of an AT&T security hole that exposed the email addresses of tens of thousands of iPad 3G owners. Auernheimer, also known as “Escher,” or “Weev” (hacker handle), was in the possession of cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, and schedule 2 and 3 pharmaceuticals when he was busted by the FBI.
According to a Cnet report, Auernheimer was arrested following the execution of an FBI search warrant at his home in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Currently being held in the Washington County Detention Center (in Fayetteville), Auernheimer is charged with four felony counts of possession of a controlled substance and one misdemeanor possession charge. Drugs include cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, and schedule 2 and 3 pharmaceuticals, according to Lt. Anthony Foster of the Washington County Sheriff's office in that state.
Writing under the name Escher, Auernheimer recently issued a response to AT&T regarding his group’s security breach. The author claimed that AT&T “would have never fixed” the problem, hadn’t him and his team gone public with the flaw.
“AT&T had plenty of time to inform the public before our disclosure,” the hacker began his plea. “It was not done. Post-patch, disclosure should be immediate– within the hour. Days afterward is not acceptable […] Even in this disclosure, which I feel they would not have made if we hadn’t publicized this vulnerability, AT&T is being dishonest about the potential for harm,” Auernheimer stressed. He revealed that, although AT&T claimed the person responsible for finding the bug had gone “to great efforts” to do so, “The finder of the AT&T email leak spent just over a single hour of labor total (not counting the time the script ran with no human intervention) to scrape the 114,000 emails.” He concluded by saying, “When we disclosed this, we did it as a service to our nation.”
According to Cnet, Auernheimer was arrested in March for allegedly giving a fake name to law enforcement officers in relation to a parking complaint in his home town, Fayetteville. AT&T, for its part, promised in its letter sent to affected iPad customers that the operator would assist in the investigation and prosecution of any illegal activity related to the security breach. However, it is yet unknown whether Auernheimer’s arrest had anything to do with this. Although a hearing is scheduled for June 18 in Washington County Circuit Court, no bond or court date had been set, as of yet, Lt. Anthony Foster said.