FBI Investigating iPad 3G Security Breach
On Thursday, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said it has opened an investigation into a security breach of AT&T’s website that allowed hackers to gain access to 114,000 email addresses of iPad 3G owners.
"The FBI is aware of these possible computer intrusions and has opened an investigation to address this potential cyberthreat," Lindsay Godwin, an FBI spokeswoman, told AFP.
Godwin said the FBI was not releasing any other information about the probe at this time.
AT&T acknowledged that the data had been breached on Wednesday, when hackers obtained the email addresses of the iPad owners. AT&T’s 3G plan provides cellular connectivity for the touchscreen tablet computer from Apple.
Silicon Valley website Valleywag said that hacking group Goatse Security hacked into the AT&T website and obtained the email addresses of business leaders, politicians and military officials.
The site said the names of some on the list included New York Times Co. chief executive Janet Robinson, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
Retired rear admiral Jamie Barnett, chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s public safety ad homeland security bureau, expressed concern earlier Thursday about the incident.
"I am concerned about the report of a security breach to AT&T’s network that exposed the personal data of more than a hundred thousand iPad users," Barnett said in a statement.
"This breach underscores the need for robust cyber security," he said. "The FCC will continue to work with all stakeholders to prevent future security breaches that violate consumer privacy and undermine trust in America’s communications infrastructure."
AT&T apologized for the security breach and said it has "turned off the feature that provided the email addresses."
Charlie Miller, an analyst with Independent Security Evaluators, said the breach had nothing to do with the iPad’s security.
"The actual vulnerability is pretty basic, but the loss of data is not serious, in my opinion. The data on the iPad and the devices themselves were never compromised or vulnerable," Miller told Reuters via e-mail.
Chief technology officer for security software company McAfee, George Kurtz, also downplayed the severity of the breach.
"I would guess that this application vulnerability gained so much attention because, after all, it is Apple we are talking about," Kurtz wrote in a blog post.
"The hype around Apple products — like the new iPhone and iPad — is amazing. However, the reality is this type of vulnerability isn’t really news and happens all day long."
Gawker Media, the owner of Valleywag, also runs popular technology blog Gizmodo, which was the first site to leak the photos of Apple’s iPhone 4 before it was announced.
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