A hacker group called Goatse Security has succeeded in acquiring the email addresses of a large number of AT&T subscribers thanks to a security hole in the iPad.
According to Gawker, the hackers managed to persuade AT&T to provide the details using a customer ICC-ID, which links a certain device to a customers SIM card.
The security hole has now been fixed, with AT&T claiming that it was a business customer who warned them of the problem, as opposed to Goatse Security.
“AT&T was informed by a business customer on Monday of the potential exposure of their iPad ICC IDS. The only information that can be derived from the ICC IDS is the e-mail address attached to that device,” read an AT&T apology
“This issue was escalated to the highest levels of the company and was corrected by Tuesday; and we have essentially turned off the feature that provided the e-mail addresses.”
A significant number of exposed emails were of top level executives at US media and finance companies, including Dow Jones, Conde Nast, Time Warner, HBO and the US military research arm Darpa.
Advertisement
Related Stories
- The Apple iPhone 5 rumour mill May 25th 2012 at 2:50PM
- Developer fined £50,000 over fake Angry Birds app May 25th 2012 at 12:28PM
- Yahoo unveils innovative search software for Apple May 24th 2012 at 2:27PM
- Apple tells Siri complainers to get a different phone May 18th 2012 at 12:13PM
- iPhone 5 'bigger screen' rumours gather pace May 17th 2012 at 2:13PM
- Student wins 'email lottery' May 13th 2012 at 10:40PM
- Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 released May 9th 2012 at 10:28PM
- iOS update fixes bugs and security flaws May 8th 2012 at 5:45AM
