Jeremy Hammond

Early Life

Jeremy Alexander Hammond was born on January 8, 1985, and raised in Glendale Heights, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, alongside his twin brother Jason. He developed an early aptitude for computing, writing video games in QBasic by age eight and building databases by age thirteen. At Glenbard East High School in Lombard, Illinois, he won first place in a district-wide science competition for a program he designed. During his high school years he also became politically active, organizing a student walkout on the day of the Iraq invasion and founding a student newspaper to oppose the Iraq War. His high school principal described him as "old beyond his years."

Hammond enrolled at the University of Illinois at Chicago, but his academic career was cut short during his freshman year in spring 2004 when he exploited a security flaw in the computer science department's website. He approached administrators offering to help fix the vulnerabilities, but was instead called before the department chair and ultimately banned from returning for his sophomore year. Outside of computing, Hammond and his brother Jason shared a lifelong interest in music and performed together in the Chicago ska band Dirty Surgeon Insurgency. Hammond also worked as a Mac technician in Villa Park, Illinois, and as a web developer for Chicago-based Rome & Company.

Career and Activism

Hammond founded HackThisSite in 2003 at age eighteen, shortly after graduating high school. The site described itself as a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting security education and a constructive learning culture. Within its first two years it recorded 2.5 million hits, attracted 110,000 members, and assembled a volunteer staff of 34.

At the 2004 DEF CON conference in Las Vegas, Hammond delivered a talk advocating "electronic civil disobedience" as a form of protest against the 2004 Republican National Convention and its supporters.

In February 2005, Hammond and others hacked the website of pro-war counterprotest group Protest Warrior, accessing thousands of credit card numbers with the stated intention of donating funds to left-wing organizations. No charges were made against the cards, but Hammond confessed and was sentenced to two years in federal prison, serving eighteen months. The terms of his subsequent probation barred him from associating with HackThisSite or anarchist groups for three years.

The Stratfor Hack

On March 5, 2012, FBI agents arrested Hammond in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago in connection with a December 2011 cyberattack on Stratfor, a private intelligence firm. The breach compromised approximately 60,000 credit card numbers, resulted in an estimated $700,000 in fraudulent charges, and involved the download of five million emails, a portion of which were subsequently published by WikiLeaks. Hammond was one of six individuals from the United States, England, and Ireland indicted in the case, which was unsealed in Manhattan federal district court.

The FBI was led to Hammond through information provided by Hector Xavier Monsegur, known online as "Sabu," who became a government informant following his arrest in early 2011. Monsegur's cooperation helped authorities identify at least eight co-conspirators and disrupt an estimated 300 cyberattacks. The case was prosecuted by the office of Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Hammond was represented by attorney Elizabeth Fink.

In February 2013, Hammond's defense team sought the recusal of presiding Judge Loretta A. Preska, arguing that her husband had an email address included in the Stratfor disclosure and worked with affected Stratfor clients, creating an appearance of partiality. Preska denied the motion. In May 2013, Hammond pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, stating publicly, "I did work with Anonymous to hack Stratfor, among other websites" and "I did what I believe is right." He maintained he had no profit motive and has said he would not have carried out the attack without Sabu's involvement. On November 15, 2013, he was sentenced to the maximum term of ten years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

Grand Jury Contempt

In October 2019, Hammond was summoned before a Virginia federal grand jury investigating WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange. After refusing to testify on the principle of grand jury resistance, he was held in civil contempt of court by Judge Anthony Trenga. Because prosecutors had granted Hammond immunity from prosecution based on any testimony he might give, he could not invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Hammond stated his ideological opposition to what he characterized as a grand jury not being conducted in good faith. Judge Trenga ordered his release in March 2020 after the grand jury concluded its work.

Release and Later Activity

Hammond was released from the Memphis Federal Correctional Institution on November 17, 2020, and transferred to a recovery house to serve the remainder of his sentence. In August 2024, he was charged with spray painting an anarchist symbol on a police car during pro-Palestinian protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Personal Views

Hammond has consistently identified publicly as an anarchist-communist, stating his belief in the abolition of capitalism and the state. He has a shoulder tattoo bearing the words "Freedom, equality, anarchy."