Slashdot Mirror
FBI Investigating iPad E-Mail Leaks
CWmike writes "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into the leak of an estimated 114,000 Apple iPad user e-mail addresses. Hackers belonging to a group called Goatse obtained the e-mail addresses after uncovering a web application on AT&T's website that returned an iPad user's e-mail address when it was sent specially written queries. After writing an automated script to repeatedly query the site, they downloaded the addresses, and then handed them over to Gawker.com. Now the FBI is trying to figure out whether this was a crime. US law prohibits the unauthorized accessing of computers, but it is unclear whether the script that the Goatse group used violated the law, said Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 'The question is, when you do an automated test like this, [are you] getting any type of unauthorized access or not,' she said. If it turns out the data in question was not misused, it is unlikely that federal prosecutors will press charges, she added."
These guys aren't hackers. They are security advisors. They are the good guys. I suppose the editors didn't bother, you know, clicking a few links? Here, I've done your homework. Was it that hard?
I'm sorry, but googling 'goatse' was not on the list of activities I had planned for the night. I mean, seriously? This said, you have my admiration for your fortitude and thanks for the sacrifices for the cause.
Also, really, with a name like 'goatse' most people aren't going to automatically leap to the idea of it being a white-hat group.
This country is so egregiously fucked up it isn't funny. AT&T puts 114,000+ users info on the internet and that's OK. No investigation. Someone pulls it from their site and they get hunted down like a witch.
FUCKED! UP!
I don't know if I would call them journalists:
Title: Apple's Worst Security Breach
"Apple has suffered another embarrassment. A security breach has exposed iPad owners including dozens of CEOs, military officials, and top politicians. They—and every other buyer of the cellular-enabled tablet—could be vulnerable to spam marketing and malicious hacking."
This is squarely AT&T's fault, yet the first paragraph implies it was "Apple Worst Security Breach". I also like how they imply that a spammer getting your e-mail address is the be-all-end-all of hacking. Really? These folks have never seen spam before? How will they venture out onto the internet without feeling exposed and dirty? Oh wait. They get a new e-mail address. *sigh*
Hacker is not a term that means you are the bad guy although it conjures the fear in the ignorant (i.e. the general public). It just meant someone who hacks.
This was a hack.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hack_(technology)