Intellectual Property Law

Alleged MySpace Cyber Stalker Subpoenas Threat Level

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

Alleged cyber stalking victim Amor Hilton, the teenage hostess of the Stickam show Bare Naked.
Image: Hilton's MySpace profile

Jeffrey Weinberg, the convicted hacker accused of trying to ransom an internet pin-up girl's MySpace account for phone sex, thinks this humble blog may hold the key to his freedom, judging from the subpoena his public defender just sent to Wired's corporate overlords.

The subpoena (.pdf) demands "any and all copies of papers, videos, photos, stories, blogs and anything and everything you may have relating to 'Amor Hilton' from your website address: www.wired.com. These information are from (sic) your website."

It's not entirely clear whether Weinberg's mouthpiece is just looking for a copy of out previous posts on Weinberg, and his alleged cyber stalking of teenage Stickam celeb Amor Hilton, or if he's after unpublished notes. If it's the latter, our lawyers will have to fight the subpoena. (Obviously, if we had anything to exonerate Weinberg, you'd have seen it in this space.)

Weinberg, 23, was arrested by LAPD detectives in Southern California in January, following a weeks-long police investigation aided by alleged victim Amor Hilton -- a waifish 18-year-old (or 17, depending on who you believe) MySpace user with a popular video streaming show on Stickam.com.

The hacker had just finished a 10-month prison sentence for hacking Lexis-Nexis' Accurint consumer data service, and was under federal supervised release. He was also one of a gang of hackers who penetrated heiress Paris Hilton's cell phone account in 2005, the Washington Post reported last year.

Amor Hilton named herself for fashion model Nicky Hilton, Paris' sister, whom she admires.

According a blog post by Hilton prior to Weinberg's arrest, she found herself locked out of her MySpace account on December 28th, the same day she began receiving harassing phone calls from a hacker calling himself "V.I.P." -- a handle used by Weinberg in the past. The calls continued over the course of several days, and often took a threatening tone, she says.

During that time, the hacker allegedly disconnected Hilton's cell phone account, and took over her account on Stickam. He allegedly demanded phone sex and nude photos from Hilton.

Weinberg is charged with attempted extortion; knowingly accessing a computer to defraud; adding, altering, deleting or destroying data on a computer without authorization; unlawful disruption of computer access; making obscene or threatening phone calls; and making unlawful use of personal identification information.

See Also:

• More Charges in MySpace Cyber Stalking Case
• Convicted Hacker Charged With Extortion After Attack On Model's ...
• MySpace Sued Over 2006 Teen Suicide
• School Cop Investigated for Porn Link on Friend's MySpace Profile ...
• MySpace Quietly Fixes Bug that Gave Voyeurs Access to Teens ...

Full post as published by Threat Level on March 18, 2008 (boomark / email).