Daniel Spitler and Andrew Auernheimer were arrested Tuesday and charged “with one count of conspiracy to access a computer without authorization and one count of fraud,” according to a spokeswoman for the office.
Last June Mr. Auernheimer, known online as Weev, gained national attention when a group he represents, known as Goatse Security, discovered a security loophole in AT&T’s Web site that exposed more than 114,000 e-mail addresses, along with corresponding I.D. numbers for 3G iPads, to the public.
The case was quickly picked up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as the e-mail addresses included those of military personnel, staff members in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and people at the Justice Department, NASA and Homeland Security.
Mr. Spitler, who uses the online alias JacksonBrown, is originally a San Francisco resident and is in custody in Newark. Mr. Auernheimer was taken into custody by the F.B.I. in Arkansas, and was expected to be charged in federal court in Fayetteville, Ark.
A press conference will be held in Newark at 12:30 p.m. to discuss the charges.
Last year Jason Pack, a supervisory special agent with the the F.B.I., said in a phone interview that the federal component of the investigation had been moved to the bureau’s Newark division because it specializes in computer attacks and other technology crimes.
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