Jeremy Hammond, born in 1985, is a controversial Chicago, Illinois political activist, self-professed anarchist, freegan and convicted hacker who has been involved in anti-war and anti-globalization causes as well as digital rights and free software movements. He has helped produce several zines and websites for his various hacker and activist groups, most notably founding the hacker website hackthissite.org. He was recently convicted for the theft of approximately 5000 credit card numbers with intent to defraud and distribute. For this, he was sentenced to twenty four months in prison, a $5250 fine, and three years of supervised release during which he may not participate in any hacking or anarchist communities, either physically or online.
Jeremy Hammond | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Political Activist |
The incident
On March 7, 2005, Hammond's apartment in Chicago was raided by FBI agents who seized his computers, written records and various electronic media. He was eventually arrested and charged with felony-level offenses relating to computer hacking and credit card fraud, arising from the 2004 intrusion into the website belonging to the activist group Protest Warrior. Hammond illegally took a list of approximately 5000 credit card numbers and was involved in a scheme to use these stolen numbers to make donations to humanitarian and charity groups. Though he had these numbers in his possession for a number of months, he never went through with the scheme. An informant contacted Protest Warrior and told them about the hack. They then contacted the FBI. The District Attorney and the FBI charged Jeremy with 2.5 million dollars in damage ($500 per credit card), following guidelines for "intent to use" even though no damage was actually done.
Sentencing
With his court appointed attorney's recommendations, Hammond eventually entered a "blind plea" of guilt without any plea bargain. At his sentencing hearing on December 7, 2006 he claimed that he was motivated by "political rivalry" and not personal gain. Although the judge said Jeremy had a "special gift", he also said that Jeremy "used poor judgment" and that "all 19 year olds are idiots". The judge said he believed that Jeremy "probably wouldn't" have used the credit cards, but based the sentencing on a "30% chance" that something may have triggered him to use them eventually. He took 30% of the $2.5 million dollars and used that figure for the sentencing guidelines. Hammond was sentenced to 24 months in prison and 3 years' probation during which he may not participate in Hackthissite.org or Anarchist activities. No restitution was awarded to the victims for the potential damages alleged by the prosecution. Although the District Attorney Brandon Fox and the FBI tried to incarcerate Jeremy at his sentencing hearing for "violating bail by failing two recent drug tests and being arrested on disorderly conduct charges", the judge gave Jeremy until January 3 2007 to check himself in, to let him spend the holidays with his family at his father's request.
Other activism
Along with several other activists from Chicago, Jeremy was arrested in Toledo, Ohio while attending an anti-Nazi rally on December 11, 2005. They were detained for various charges, including disorderly conduct. Jeremy and many others have had their names, addresses and phone numbers released on a racist website after their arrests. These charges were eventually dropped, and Jeremy along with others are now involved in a lawsuit against the city and police for wrongful arrest.
In addition to helping organize and participating in dozens of anti-war and anti-capitalist actions in Chicago and around the country, he has helped found and/or provide material assistance to other related political activist projects. He has volunteered and helped organize hacktivist workshops at dai5ychain community computer lab, has helped maintain activist living co-ops, has cooked, served, and hosted food not bombs activities, has organized public games of Urban Capture the Flag, and more.
See also
External links
News articles
- Article on Anti-Nazi protest detailing Jeremy and others' arrest for 'illegal assembly'
- Austin Group Complains of Hack Attack, Austin Statesman article, July 14, 2005
- "But Can He Hack Prison", Chicago Reader article, August 18, 2005
- Description of the ProtestWarrior hack
- Hacking Leads to Prison, Chicago Tribune article, December 8, 2006
- Columbia Chronicle article on Dai5chain and hacktivism
- Jeremy at DefCon 2004
- Protest Warriors' version of events
- Anarchopedia entry on Jeremy Hammond
Websites put together by Hammond and the HTS/Hackbloc collective
- Hackbloc
- HackThisSite
- HackerDefense.net
- FreeShitChicago.org
- RootThisBox.org ( Now defunct continued as .net )
- DisrespectCopyrights.net