White supremacist hacker claims printing of swastika fliers at colleges
Published March 29, 2016
Andrew Auernheimer was part of a group in 2010 that hacked AT&T’s servers, but his conviction was overturned on appeal. (Wikimedia Commons)
(JTA) — A well-known computer hacker said he was behind anti-Semitic, racist fliers that appeared on printers at more than a dozen colleges last week.
Andrew Auernheimer, who goes by the name “Weev,” exploited network printers at the colleges to produce the swastika-covered fliers, he claimed as early as Friday.
Auernheimer, 30, was part of a group that in 2010 hacked AT&T’s servers and accessed the data of 114,000 customers. His conviction on identity fraud and conspiracy to access a computer without authorization was overturned on appeal.
The self-described “white nationalist hacktivist” sent the fliers to every publicly accessible printer in North America and did not specifically target college campuses, he told various media outlets.
The fliers read: “White man … are you sick and tired of the Jews destroying your country through mass immigration and degeneracy? Join us in the struggle for global white supremacy at The Daily Stormer.” A pair of large swastikas appear alongside the address of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer.
Among the colleges hit by the fliers were Princeton University, the University of California, Berkeley, Smith College, Brown University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Mount Holyoke College. At least seven campus Hillels also were affected, according to the Anti-Defamation League New England.
In an October 2014 feature on The Daily Dot, Auernheimer described himself as “a long-time critic of Judaism, black culture, immigration to Western nations, and the media’s constant stream of anti-white propaganda,” the Anti-Defamation League pointed out. The article said he has a “giant swastika tattoo.”
That same month, the ADL noted, Auernheimer ranted about “the Jews” unprecedented “empire of wickedness” on The Daily Stormer.
“They took control of our systems of finance and law. They hyperinflated our currency. They corrupted our daughters and demanded they subject themselves to sex work to feed their families. These are a people that have made themselves a problem in every nation they occupy, including ours,” he wrote.
Universities have notified the police and launched investigations regarding the fliers, but it was unclear if Auernheimer broke any laws, according to The New York Times.
Anti-gay and transgender fliers appeared Monday on printers at Berkeley and Amherst, the Times reported. Auernheimer, who posted the code he used to access the printers online, said he was not involved.
