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Andrew Auernheimer, aka Weev the grayhat security researcher and Internet antiblog troll was convicted for exposing a flaw in AT&T security which allowed the e-mail addresses of iPad users to be revealed.
The conviction was vacated Friday (2014/04/11) on the grounds of improper choice of venue, but the court commented anyway that "no evidence was advanced at trial" that "any password gate or other code-based barrier" was breached.The defendant's attorney, Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in an e-mail that a "retrial is barred by double jeopardy." If the authorities do seek a second trial, he said, "we will raise precisely that."
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Weev's Conviction Vacated by 3rd Circuit
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There's no such thing as an original sin.
-- Elvis Costello
(Score: 1) by opinionated_science on Saturday April 12 2014, @10:15PM
any lawers out there know if it is legal to sell discovered security flaws to a private buyer?
Those "black market" websites do it for illegally obtained information (e.g. credit cards), but of course they are illicit to start with.
I only mentioned it because you mention
, and I had a vision of the Monty Python style "blackmail" game show!!!!
(Score: 1) by Horse With Stripes on Saturday April 12 2014, @10:55PM
Considering the government claims Weev broke the law when he "discovered" this security flaw, selling the information about the flaw would have been used as evidence against him as proof of his true intentions ("nothing 'accidental' about that, now is there, ladies and gentlemen of the jury?"). And motive is an element of the crime.
Also, it's not inconceivable that a prosecutor would claim "any reasonable person can infer that the only way he could have proven the exploit worked to the buyer was by handing over some of the illegally acquired data". And thus he was not only profiting from his crimes by selling the exploits, but also selling personally identifiable data (or however the feds would label it).
IANAL, and I don't watch the Law & Order reruns, but I'm pretty sure the prosecutors would try to show that selling the exploit was an overt act in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy. They would equate it to someone selling the plans to a bank, or the schedule of an armored car, to someone who was going to use that information to commit a robbery ("because there is no other reason for someone to purchase this type of information unless they were intending to use it to commit a crime").
(Score: 1) by opinionated_science on Saturday April 12 2014, @11:19PM
google monty python blackmail, it is inspired farce for the modern age....!
(Score: 1) by Horse With Stripes on Saturday April 12 2014, @11:46PM
I can see the similarities ... and the potential for prosecutorial abuse ... all with lights, camera and a nude organist. Combine this with the "someone can sing about dancing talent" call in voting shows and I think we've got a winner. Add a cage match between Judge Judy & Nancy Grace, and they won't even need Ryan Seacrest.
BTW, I found two different versions of the skit on YouTube. They used the same script (except for the identity of the caller at the end), but were shot on different stages, used some different actors, and had different pictures & film footage. Both needed to burn the organist's bench.
(Score: 2) by Angry Jesus on Sunday April 13 2014, @03:36AM
> selling the information about the flaw would have been used as evidence against him as proof of his true intentions
The only reason they even knew to persecute him was because he went public with the info. If he had just sold it, they would have never known to come after him. Even if the buyer exploited the information, unless someone else went public in a big way (e.g. talked to journalists rather than just used the info for criminal purposes), they would probably have just swept it all under the rug.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday April 13 2014, @06:08PM
Depends on the buyer. If he sold it to the NSA, he'd get money, immunity, and a medal.