Hacker Andrew "weev" Auernheimer leaves US

Hacker Andrew "weev" Auernheimer has decided to break up with the US and leave for a non-extradition country (judging by his tweets - it seems he has pulled a Snowden and fled to Russia) after being released from a one year prison stint after the US courts agreed that his constitutional rights had been violated in relation to his prosecution.

Ars Technica reported that Auernheimer had been placed in solitary confinement for obtaining and disclosing personal data of about 140,000 iPad owners from a publicly available AT&T website, was seen as a test case on how far the authorities could go under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the same law that federal prosecutors were invoking against Aaron Swartz.



But in the end, the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals didn't squarely address the controversial hacking law and instead said Auernheimer was charged in the wrong federal court.

Prosecutors have not brought new charges.

Robert Graham asks readers on the Errata Security blog what this all means? Will he turn to full on black-hat hacking vowing never to step foot in a country with an extradition treaty with the US and lay down some real havoc for a foreign government, or go white-hat because there is lots of useful white-hat research that we don't do because of the chilling effect of government overreach.

Only time will tell, but to feel your country has violated your rights would make some seek revenge...