Daniel Spitler and Andrew Auerheimer hacked into AT&T servers a while back and gained access to 10,000 email addresses associated with 3G iPad accounts. Spitler has now been sentenced in the matter. Auerheimer is reportedly still negotiating a plea deal. The 12-18 month sentence Spitler got was considerably lighter than the ten years he could have received for the hack. Spitler said that the two were trying to expose the flaws in the AT&T system by hacking into it. You’d think something like, oh I don’t know, an e-mail could have maybe accomplished the same thing without the whole going to jail part. Still, the idea of “I’m just exposing bad security” is something we’re hearing A LOT from hackers these days. And either it’s misguided altruism or complete hogwash and a weak cover for the fact that hacking is fun and makes you feel like a bigshot.
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