AT&T blames hackers for breaching iPad security

Stephen Foley
Monday 14 June 2010 19:00 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The american telecoms giant AT&T was last night engaged in a bitter war of words with hackers who obtained the email addresses of thousands of customers using the Apple iPad.

Goatse Security, an underground hacking and security group, retaliated after AT&T sent a letter to customers apologising for the breach. In the letter, the telecoms company said that "unauthorised computer 'hackers' maliciously exploited a function designed to make your iPad log-in process faster", adding that it would assist an FBI investigation into the incident.

Goatse was able to obtain the email addresses of 114,000 users who connect their iPads to the internet via AT&T's 3G telephone network. Among the addresses were those for the New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. AT&T said Goatse went "to great efforts" to obtain the data – but the group said it only took an hour.

Escher Auernheimer, of Goatse, said it had waited until AT&T had rectified the problem before going public. "If not for our firm talking about the exploit to third parties who subsequently notified them, they would have never fixed it," he wrote on the group's blog. "So get real. You fucked up, we helped you that figure out [sic] and informed the public. You should thank us."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in