Jeremy Hammond

Last updated
Jeremy Hammond
Jeremyhammond.jpg
Born
Jeremy Hammond

(1985-01-08) January 8, 1985 (age 39)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
OccupationActivist
Website

Jeremy Hammond (born January 8, 1985), alias sup_g, [1] is an American anarchist activist and former computer hacker from Chicago. He founded the computer security training website HackThisSite [2] in 2003. [3] He was first imprisoned over the Protest Warrior hack in 2005 and was later convicted of computer fraud in 2013 for hacking the private intelligence firm Stratfor and releasing data to WikiLeaks, [4] and sentenced to 10 years in prison. [5]

Contents

In 2019, he was summoned before a Virginia federal grand jury which was investigating WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange. He was held in civil contempt of court after refusing to testify on the principle of grand jury resistance. [6] [7]

He was released from prison in November 2020. [8]

Early life

Hammond was born and raised in the Chicago suburb of Glendale Heights, Illinois, with his twin brother Jason. [2] [9] Hammond became interested in computers at an early age, programming video games in QBasic by age eight, and building databases by age thirteen. [2] [10] As a student at Glenbard East High School in the nearby suburb of Lombard, Hammond won first place in a district-wide science competition for a computer program he designed. [2] While in high school, he became a peace activist, organizing a student walkout on the day of the Iraq invasion and starting a student newspaper to oppose the Iraq War. His high school principal described Hammond as "old beyond his years". [2]

Hammond attended the University of Illinois at Chicago. In the spring of 2004, during his freshman year, he exploited a security flaw on the computer science department's website and went to department administrators, offering to help fix the security flaws on the site and looking to get a job. [3] For inserting the backdoor, Hammond was called before the department chair and ultimately banned from returning for his sophomore year. [2] [10]

Jeremy, along with his brother Jason, has had a lifelong interest in music, performing in numerous bands through the years. Before Jeremy's arrests, they were both actively performing in the Chicago ska band Dirty Surgeon Insurgency. [10]

Hammond worked as a Mac technician in Villa Park, Illinois. [3] He also worked as a web developer for Chicago-based Rome & Company. His boss at Rome & Company wrote in 2010 that Hammond is "friendly, courteous and polite and while we suspect he has a low tolerance for corporate posturing, he has never demonstrated any contempt for business in the workplace". [11]

Computer hacking and activism

Hammond founded the computer security training website HackThisSite at age 18, during the summer after his high school graduation. [3] The website describes itself as "a non-profit organization that strives to protect a good security culture and learning atmosphere". [12] In its first two years the site received 2.5 million hits and acquired 110,000 members and a volunteer staff of 34. [3]

During the 2004 DEF CON event in Las Vegas, Hammond delivered a talk that encouraged "electronic civil disobedience" as a means of protest against the 2004 Republican National Convention and its supporters. [3] [13]

In February 2005, Hammond, with others, hacked the website of pro-war counterprotesting group Protest Warrior and accessed thousands of credit card numbers, intending to use them to donate to left-wing groups. Although no charges were ever made against the cards, Hammond confessed and was sentenced to two years in federal prison for the crime. Freed after 18 months, Hammond was radicalized by the experience, although the terms of his probation prohibited him from associating with HackThisSite or anarchist groups for another three years. [14]

Stratfor case

On March 5, 2012, Hammond was arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago [15] [16] [17] for his involvement in the December 2011 cyberattack on Stratfor, a private intelligence firm. [13] The intrusion compromised 60,000 credit card numbers, $700,000 in fraudulent charges, and involved the download of 5 million emails, some of which were subsequently published by WikiLeaks. [13] The indictment was unsealed the following day in the Manhattan federal district court. [18] He was one of six individuals from the United States, England and Ireland indicted. [19]

The FBI was led to Hammond through information given by computer hacker Hector Xavier Monsegur ("Sabu"), who became a government informant immediately after his arrest in early 2011, and subsequently pleaded guilty in August 2011 to twelve counts of hacking, fraud, and identity theft. Although Monsegur could have received a sentence of more than 20 years in prison, prosecutors asked that he be sentenced to time served, which was seven months in prison. [20] [21] [22] [23] Information from Monsegur helped lead the authorities to at least eight co-conspirators, including Hammond, [20] and helped to disrupt at least 300 cyberattacks. [21]

The case was prosecuted by the office of Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. [24] [25] Hammond was represented by Elizabeth Fink. [26]

Sabu was detained pending trial; in denying bail, Judge Loretta A. Preska described Hammond as "a very substantial danger to the community." [27] In February 2013, the defense filed a motion asking presiding Judge Preska to recuse herself from the case on the basis that Preska's husband, Thomas Kavaler, had an email address released in the Stratfor disclosure and worked with Stratfor clients that were affected by the hack. Hammond's legal team argued that this created "appearance of partiality too strong to be disregarded". [28] [29] Preska denied the motion, claiming that the connections were inconsequential or unimportant. [30]

In May 2013, Hammond pleaded guilty [13] to one count of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). [31] Upon his guilty plea, Hammond issued a statement saying, "I did work with Anonymous to hack Stratfor, among other websites" and "I did what I believe is right." [13] He maintained that he had no profit motive for the cyberattack. [13] Hammond has insisted that he would not have carried out the breach of Stratfor's systems without the involvement of Sabu. Hammond was sentenced on November 15, 2013, to the maximum of ten years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. [31] He described his prosecution and sentence as a "vengeful, spiteful act." [31] On November 17, 2020, Hammond was released from the Memphis Federal Correctional Institution and was transferred to a recovery house to serve the rest of his sentence. [8]

In October 2019, Hammond was summoned before a Virginia federal grand jury which was investigating WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange. He was held in civil contempt of court by Judge Anthony Trenga after refusing to testify. [6] [7] Prosecutors granted Hammond immunity from prosecution based on any grand jury testimony, so Hammond could not refuse to testify on the ground of his right against self-incrimination. [6] Like Chelsea Manning (who was also held in contempt for refusing to testify), Hammond said he was ideologically opposed to any grand jury probe which was not being conducted in "good faith" as the government already had the information it needed. [6] In making his contempt ruling, Trenga stated that Hammond's arguments against testifying were "self-serving assertions … without support." [6] Trenga ordered Hammond released in March 2020 after the conclusion of the grand jury, saying that prosecutors no longer required his testimony. Hammond was returned to federal prison to serve the balance of his 10 year sentence. Hammond may have received an early release in December 2019 had the grand jury not intervened. [7]

Personal life

He frequently identifies as an anarchist and has a shoulder tattoo of the anarchy symbol with the words: "Freedom, equality, anarchy." [31] Writing after his arrest, Hammond said, "I have always made it clear that I am an anarchist-communist – as in I believe we need to abolish capitalism and the state in its entirety to realize a free, egalitarian society. I'm not into watering down or selling out the message or making it more marketable for the masses." [32]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hacktivism</span> Computer-based activities as a means of protest

Internet activism, hacktivism, or hactivism, is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. With roots in hacker culture and hacker ethics, its ends are often related to free speech, human rights, or freedom of information movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stratfor</span> American geopolitical advising firm

Strategic Forecasting Inc., commonly known as Stratfor, is an American strategic intelligence publishing company founded in 1996. Stratfor's business model is to provide individual and enterprise subscriptions to Stratfor Worldview, its online publication, and to perform intelligence gathering for corporate clients. The focus of Stratfor's content is security issues and analyzing geopolitical risk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HackThisSite</span> Organization

HackThisSite.org, commonly referred to as HTS, is an online hacking and security website founded by Jeremy Hammond. The site is maintained by members of the community after he left the organization. It aims to provide users with a way to learn and practice basic and advanced "hacking" skills through a series of challenges in a safe and legal environment. The organization has a user base of over a million, though the number of active members is believed to be much lower. The most users online at the same time was 19,950 on February 5, 2018 at 2:46 a.m. CT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loretta Preska</span> American judge (born 1949)

Loretta A. Preska is an American lawyer who serves as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Born in Albany, Preska received law degrees from Fordham University School of Law and New York University School of Law. She practiced law in New York City from 1973 to 1992 at the law firms of Cahill Gordon & Reindel and Hertzog, Calamari & Gleason. President George H. W. Bush appointed her to the district bench in 1992. She served as chief judge of the court for a seven-year term from 2009 to 2016, and took senior status in 2017. President George W. Bush nominated Preska to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2008, but the Senate did not act on the nomination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam A. Lindsay</span> American judge (born 1951)

Sam Allen Lindsay is an American attorney who serves as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, with chambers in Dallas, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anonymous (hacker group)</span> Decentralized hacktivist group

Anonymous is a decentralized international activist and hacktivist collective and movement primarily known for its various cyberattacks against several governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations and the Church of Scientology.

Michael Gregory Hoglund is an American author, researcher, and serial entrepreneur in the cyber security industry. He is the founder of several companies, including Cenzic, HBGary and Outlier Security. Hoglund contributed early research to the field of rootkits, software exploitation, buffer overflows, and online game hacking. His later work focused on computer forensics, physical memory forensics, malware detection, and attribution of hackers. He holds a patent on fault injection methods for software testing, and fuzzy hashing for computer forensics. Due to an email leak in 2011, Hoglund is well known to have worked for the U.S. Government and Intelligence Community in the development of rootkits and exploit material. It was also shown that he and his team at HBGary had performed a great deal of research on Chinese Government hackers commonly known as APT. For a time, his company HBGary was the target of a great deal of media coverage and controversy following the 2011 email leak. HBGary was later acquired by a large defense contractor.

weev Internet troll and hacker

Andrew Alan Escher Auernheimer, best known by his pseudonym weev, is an American computer hacker and professional Internet troll. Affiliated with the alt-right, the Southern Poverty Law Center has described him as being a neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and antisemitic conspiracy theorist. He has used many aliases when he has contacted the media, but most sources state that his real first name is Andrew.

The Jester is a self-identified grey hat hacktivist. He claims to be responsible for attacks on WikiLeaks and Islamist websites. He claims to be acting out of American patriotism.

Jake Leslie Davis, best known by his online pseudonym Topiary, is a British hacktivist. He has worked with Anonymous, LulzSec, and other similar groups. He was an associate of the Internet group Anonymous, which has publicly claimed various online attacks, including hacking HBGary, Westboro Baptist Church, and Gawker. They have also claimed responsibility for the defacing of government websites in countries such as Zimbabwe, Syria, Tunisia, Ireland, and Egypt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LulzSec</span> Hacker group

LulzSec was a black hat computer hacking group that claimed responsibility for several high profile attacks, including the compromise of user accounts from PlayStation Network in 2011. The group also claimed responsibility for taking the CIA website offline. Some security professionals have commented that LulzSec has drawn attention to insecure systems and the dangers of password reuse. It has gained attention due to its high profile targets and the sarcastic messages it has posted in the aftermath of its attacks. One of the founders of LulzSec was computer security specialist Hector Monsegur, who used the online moniker Sabu. He later helped law enforcement track down other members of the organization as part of a plea deal. At least four associates of LulzSec were arrested in March 2012 as part of this investigation. Prior, British authorities had announced the arrests of two teenagers they alleged were LulzSec members, going by the pseudonyms T-flow and Topiary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation AntiSec</span> Series of cyberattacks conducted by Anonymous and LulzSec

Operation Anti-Security, also referred to as Operation AntiSec or #AntiSec, is a series of hacking attacks performed by members of the hacking group LulzSec and Anonymous, and others inspired by the announcement of the operation. LulzSec performed the earliest attacks of the operation, with the first against the Serious Organised Crime Agency on 20 June 2011. Soon after, the group released information taken from the servers of the Arizona Department of Public Safety; Anonymous would later release information from the same agency two more times. An offshoot of the group calling themselves LulzSecBrazil launched attacks on numerous websites belonging to the Government of Brazil and the energy company Petrobras. LulzSec claimed to retire as a group, but on 18 July they reconvened to hack into the websites of British newspapers The Sun and The Times, posting a fake news story of the death of the publication's owner Rupert Murdoch.

Hector Xavier Monsegur, known also by the online pseudonym Sabu, is an American computer hacker and co-founder of the hacking group LulzSec. Monsegur became an informant for the FBI, working with the agency for over ten months to aid them in identifying the other hackers from LulzSec and related groups while facing a sentence of 124 years in prison. LulzSec intervened in the affairs of organizations such as News Corporation, Stratfor, UK and American law enforcement bodies and Irish political party Fine Gael.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barrett Brown</span> American journalist, essayist and activist

Barrett Lancaster Brown is an American journalist, essayist, activist and former associate of Anonymous. In 2010, he founded Project PM, a group that used a wiki to analyze leaks concerning the military-industrial complex. It was classified a "criminal organization" by the Department of Justice. In late 2020, Brown restarted Project PM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mustafa Al-Bassam</span> British computer hacker and co-founder of LulzSec

Mustafa Al-Bassam is a British computer security researcher, hacker, and co-founder of Celestia Labs. Al-Bassam co-founded the hacker group LulzSec in 2011, which was responsible for several high profile breaches. He later went on to co-found Chainspace, a company implementing a smart contract platform, which was acquired by Facebook in 2019. In 2021, Al-Bassam graduated from University College London, completing a PhD in computer science with a thesis on Securely Scaling Blockchain Base Layers. In 2016, Forbes listed Al-Bassam as one of the 30 Under 30 entrepreneurs in technology.

Ryan Ackroyd, a.k.a.Kayla and also lolspoon, is a former black hat hacker who was one of the six core members of the computer hacking group "LulzSec" during its 50-day spree of attacks from 6 May 2011 until 26 June 2011. Throughout the time, Ackroyd posed as a female hacker named "Kayla" and was responsible for the penetration of multiple military and government domains and many high profile intrusions into the networks of Gawker in December 2010, HBGaryFederal in 2011, PBS, Sony, Infragard Atlanta, Fox Entertainment and others. He eventually served 30 months in prison for his hacking activities.

Peter Van Zandt Lane is an American composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music.

<i>The Hacker Wars</i> 2014 American film

The Hacker Wars is a 2014 documentary film about hacktivism in the United States, directed by Vivien Lesnik Weisman. It was released on October 17, 2014 in the US.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigurdur Thordarson</span> Icelandic hacker, informant and criminal

Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, commonly known as Siggi hakkari, is an Icelandic convicted criminal and FBI informant against WikiLeaks. He is known for information leaks, multiple cases of fraud and embezzlement, sexual solicitation of minors and adults. He has multiple convictions for sexual offences.

References

  1. ↑ Janet Reitman (7 December 2012). "The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 20 February 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Luman, Stuart. Chicago Magazine, July 2007. "The Hacktivist" Archived 2018-11-26 at the Wayback Machine
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hayes, Christopher. Chicago Reader, August 15, 2005. "But Can He Hack Prison?" Archived 2018-11-26 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ Perlroth, Nicole. New York Times, March 12, 2012. "Inside the Stratfor Attack" Archived 2012-03-14 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ Poulson, Kevin. Wired, November 15, 2013. "Anonymous Hacktivist Jeremy Hammond Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison"
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Rachel Weiner, Hacker held in contempt for refusing to testify before WikiLeaks grand jury Archived 2021-10-18 at the Wayback Machine , Washington Post (October 10, 2019).
  7. 1 2 3 Cameron, Dell (13 March 2020). "Judge Orders Chelsea Manning And Jeremy Hammond Released From Jail". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 18 October 2021. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  8. 1 2 "Jeremy Hammond, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office hacker, released from prison". al. Associated Press. 2020-11-19. Archived from the original on 2021-10-18. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  9. ↑ "The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State". Rolling Stone . 7 December 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-05-02. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
  10. 1 2 3 "Chicago hacking suspect a genius without wisdom, mom says" Archived 2012-03-09 at the Wayback Machine , March 7, 2012, Chicago Tribune
  11. ↑ "Chicago man accused in international hacking bust" Archived 2012-03-11 at the Wayback Machine , March 6, 2012, Chicago Sun-Times
  12. ↑ "HackThisSite.Org Bill of Rights". Archived from the original on 2013-05-09. Retrieved 2013-05-03.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kevin Poulson, Anonymous Hacktivist Jeremy Hammond Pleads Guilty to Stratfor Attack Archived 2021-10-18 at the Wayback Machine , Wired (May 28, 2013).
  14. ↑ The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond, Enemy of the State Archived 2021-10-18 at the Wayback Machine , Janet Reitman, Rolling Stone, December 7, 2012. Accessed August 26, 2020.
  15. ↑ Anderson, Nate. March 2012. "Stakeout: how the FBI tracked and busted a Chicago Anon" Archived 2021-10-18 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ↑ Goudie, Chuck. ABC7 Chicago, March 6, 2012. "Chicagoan charged in international cyber attacks" Archived 2012-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ↑ Lighty, Todd and Wailin Wong. Chicago Tribune, March 6, 2012. "Chicago man, 27, charged in cyber attack" Archived 2012-03-14 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ↑ Esposito, Richard, Aaron Katersky and Pierre Thomas. ABC News, March 6, 2012. "LulzSec 'Leader' Turns on Fellow Hacktivists" Archived 2021-10-18 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ↑ Bright, Arthur. Christian Science Monitor, March 8, 2012. "Jeremy Hammond, alleged to be 'Anarchaos'" Archived 2021-10-18 at the Wayback Machine
  20. 1 2 Tina Susman, Hacker-turned-informant Sabu is a free man after N.Y. sentencing Archived 2021-10-18 at the Wayback Machine , Los Angeles Times (May 27, 2014).
  21. 1 2 Benjamin Weiser, Hacker Who Helped Disrupt Cyberattacks Is Allowed to Walk Free Archived 2021-10-18 at the Wayback Machine , New York Times (May 28, 2014).
  22. ↑ Estes, Adam Clark. The Atlantic Wire, March 6, 2012. "FBI Says LulzSec Hacker Kingpin Was an Informant"
  23. ↑ Ball, James. The Guardian (UK), March 6, 2012. "LulzSec court papers reveal extensive FBI co-operation with hackers" Archived 2021-10-18 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ↑ United States Department of Justice, March 6, 2012. "Six Hackers in the United States and Abroad Charged for Crimes Affecting Over One Million Victims" Archived 2012-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
  25. ↑ Hurtado, Patricia and Michael Riley. Bloomberg, March 6, 2012. "Hackers Charged in Crackdown on LulzSec, Anonymous Groups"
  26. ↑ Winter, Jana. FoxNews.com, March 15, 2012. "LulzSec-linked hacker who threatened to burn White House appears in court" Archived 2021-10-18 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ↑ "Chicago man denied bail before NYC hacking trial" Archived 2012-11-24 at the Wayback Machine , November 21, 2012, Associated Press.
  28. ↑ "Jeremy Hammond's legal team seeks judge's recusal". Infosecurity Magazine. 15 February 2013. Archived from the original on 6 September 2021. Retrieved 6 September 2021. This accusation is based on the inclusion of the email address of her husband, Thomas Kavaler (a partner in the law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel), on "Starfor's [sic] clientele list." Kavaler has since denied that either he or his firm have ever been a Stratfor client. His firm does, however, represent major companies – such as Merrill Lynch & Co and American International Group Inc – who were victims of the hack.
  29. ↑ "Memorandum and Order, United States v. Jeremy Hammond". United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. February 21, 2013. Archived from the original on October 18, 2021. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
  30. ↑ Pinto, Nick (February 21, 2013). "Judge in Jeremy Hammond Case Won't Recuse Herself". The Village Voice . Archived from the original on June 11, 2020. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  31. 1 2 3 4 Ed Pilkington, "Jailed Anonymous hacker Jeremy Hammond: 'My days of hacking are done'" Archived 2021-10-18 at the Wayback Machine , The Guardian, November 15, 2013.
  32. ↑ Amar Toor, How the FBI nabbed Jeremy Hammond, Anonymous member and radical anarchist Archived 2021-10-18 at the Wayback Machine , The Verge (December 8, 2012).

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.