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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."

11 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. sheesh by Izabael_DaJinn · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've always had problems with my ipads leaking

    --
    Careful What You Wish For....
  2. Ha ha, I love the genius of the hackers' name by apparently · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Ha ha, I love the genius of the hackers' name by arkenian · · Score: 5, Funny

      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...

    2. Re:Ha ha, I love the genius of the hackers' name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      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...

    3. Re:Ha ha, I love the genius of the hackers' name by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Funny

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

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  3. I applaud this hacker group by Nicky+G · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!!!!!!!

    1. Re:I applaud this hacker group by inode_buddha · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.

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      C|N>K
  4. Re:Not you too, Slashdot by arkenian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  5. assholes by xaoslaad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!

  6. Stay classy, Reuters by l00sr · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  7. Re:Someone is lying, who do you think it is? by OverlordQ · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    --
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