As many TSW readers are aware, 2016 has been a big year for trade secret law, with both the United States and the European Union expanding trade secrets protections and increasing the uniformity of their laws. But as good as this year has been for trade secrets protection, it’s been every bit as bad for noncompete agreements.
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Self-proclaimed Internet troll and hacker Andrew “weev” Auernheimer has big plans now that he’s been sprung from prison.
We identified Auernheimer’s imprisonment and appeal as one of the top trade secret stories of 2013: A member of “Goatse Security,” Auernheimer discovered a vulnerability in AT&T’s website associated with 3G service for the iPad in June 2010. He and an associate figured out that if they sent a HTTP request with a valid ICC-ID (data found on an iPad’s sim card), they could retrieve the email address associated with that ID from the AT&T website. Fellow hacker and associate Daniel Spitler wrote a script that “slurped” the email addresses of 114,000 users (the script was called the “iPad 3G Account Slurper”). Weev shopped the addresses and news of the breach to Gawker, which took the bait. The FBI got wind of the exploit, however, and their investigation led to a criminal complaint in 2011 and a 2013 conviction on cybercrime charges that carried a 41-month prison sentence. Nevertheless, Auernheimer claimed to have used only industry-standard practices and that he and his associates “tried to be the good guys.” READ MORE
