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."

Comments

No relation

[Anonymous Coward]

"The FBI is aware of these possible computer intrusions and has opened an investigation into addressing the potential cyberthreat," said Lindsay Godwin

Fucking Nazis.

Re:No relation

[Spad]

The rarely seen and difficult to pull off Reverse Godwin?

sheesh

[Izabael_DaJinn]

I've always had problems with my ipads leaking

Re:sheesh

[yincrash]

something something fcc-mandated wings

Ha ha, I love the genius of the hackers' name

[apparently]

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

My heart goes out to the poor journalists heading out to the great google in order to get their big scoop on goatse.

Re:Ha ha, I love the genius of the hackers' name

[arkenian]

My heart goes out to the poor journalists heading out to the great google in order to get their big scoop on goatse.

I'm just trying to imagine what the first story to try to describe the origin of the name will say...

Re:Ha ha, I love the genius of the hackers' name

[DJRumpy]

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*

Re:Ha ha, I love the genius of the hackers' name

[Anonymous Coward]

My heart goes out to the poor journalists heading out to the great google in order to get their big scoop on goatse.

I'm just trying to imagine what the first story to try to describe the origin of the name will say...

Like a giant gaping security flaw...

Re:Ha ha, I love the genius of the hackers' name

[Anonymous Coward]

If it was any other company I'd agree with you, however this is Apple, and the fact that they tightly control who sells their product and how, I would expect some kind of oversight. You think if Vodafone got a bunch of iPads and was selling them at $1 on a 5 year plan that apple wouldn't shit itself?
They got themselves into their own self policed walled garden, now they have to deal with it. It was a security breach at a carrier inside the walled garden... deal with it.

And yes, email addresses are valuable information. Sure, not as bad as SSNs, but would you post your email address on a billboard? Why do you think websites, companies etc keep their customer emails under lock and key? because it's a valuable information

Re:Ha ha, I love the genius of the hackers' name

[mwvdlee]

There are black hat hackers, there are white hat hackers and now there are brown hat hackers.

I applaud this hacker group

[Nicky G]

No, not for revealing a potentially dangerous flaw in AT&T security. What-evs.

I heard and read the word Goatse more today in the mainstream media than all points of my life added together, and I can only imagine how many lives were ruined by the ensuring Google searches! Hahahahahah!!!!!!!

Re:I applaud this hacker group

[inode_buddha]

I've long fantasized about renting a billboard along the I-90 and putting www.goatse.cx on it. No image or anything, just the URL.

Not you too, Slashdot

[Kashell]

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?

http://security.goatse.fr/blog/

>>
"Anyways, there was no illegal activity or unauthorized access, this was not a shady backroom hookers and blow deal with Nick Denton as revenge for the iPhone raid (though that would be totally sweet), we did not sell your data to spammers (on the contrary, we destroyed it after Ryan used it; it had served its purpose to us) and we did not try to hack your iPads. Your iPads are safer now because of us."
>>

Re:Not you too, Slashdot

[arkenian]

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.

Re:Not you too, Slashdot

[rolfwind]

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)

ole

[britneys 9th husband]

AT&T needs to fix this wide, gaping hole that has been stretched open on their website before more iPad email addresses are exposed.

assholes

[xaoslaad]

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!

Someone is lying, who do you think it is?

[KingSkippus]

They may have discovered it, but they didn't report it to AT&T.

...According to AT&T. Someone is lying. From TFA:

Goatse Security notified AT&T of the breach and the security hole was closed.

Then later in the article:

AT&T sent us a statement...: "The person or group who discovered this gap did not contact AT&T."

Personally, I think that AT&T is a sack of douchebags that doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground, and when choosing who to believe between AT&T and just about anyone else, I'm inclined to believe anyone else. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that someone did indeed notify AT&T, but now they're trying to cover their ass and make it sound like they somehow proactively found the hole themselves.

Re:Someone is lying, who do you think it is?

[OverlordQ]

From their 'goatse security' homepage (before they edited it)

g0udatron[gapp]: Perl/PHP/js/c/objc/c++ pirate. m68k/z80/mips/x86 asm. series 7, series 66, series 62, series 42 licensed Texas broker. Bane of EFnet #anxiety and co-founder of the CUSSE certification track.

Hurm, what's this CUSSE?

Certified Unethical Security Systems Expert

Huuuuurm?

CUSSE Principles
        * Keeping 0-Days Private
        * IRC
        * Taking down Whitehats
        * Poor Netiquitte
        * Hacking the Planet
        * Ruin
        * No Disclosure
        * Mayhem
        * Nobody is Safe
        * Info is Money
        * Destruction
        * Only Death Saves You
        * Conf

Yup, they sound perfectly professional and believable.

Stay classy, Reuters

[l00sr]

Dare I say Reuters has figured it out, with this story image.