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App Developer Says Stolen UDIDs Came From Them, Not FBI

pdabbadabba writes "A Florida iPhone and iPad app developer, Blue Toad, has come forward claiming that it is the source of the Apple UDIDs previously released by Anonymous. Their dataset, they say, is a 98% match for the one Anonymous hackers claim to have stolen from an FBI laptop. If so, this development would cast serious doubt on Anonymous' claims and, possibly, calm fears that this data is evidence of an ongoing FBI surveillance operation (a claim the FBI has also denied)."

8 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Or the FBI by Lawrence_Bird · · Score: 3, Interesting

    was given the data by an insider or hacked it themself first.

  2. The real question! by HornWumpus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The next question: What was Blue Toad up to? Why did the FBI have a copy of their data? How many FBI back doors are their in Blue Toads apps?

    Lets run those apps under traffic analysis. The version that was live a week ago.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    1. Re:The real question! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You seem stuck on the premise that the data ever existed on an FBI computer. While that is possible, it is certainly no longer the simplest explanation.

  3. Re:And that company is... by amicusNYCL · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As phrased by an article at ZDNet, it's any company that allows this result:

    So there are two things we know: Apple and the FBI are back on the Christmas card lists of the general public, and hackers apparently lie.

    Apple and the FBI are good, and hackers are bad. Apparently that's the lesson to take away from this.

    According to their article in Wikipedia, it's also a company that lists the Department Of State and the Public Relations Society of America among their customers.

    --
    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  4. Re:Dont trust anonymous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Or maybe that you just can't trust Blue Toad, who got paid behind the scenes to take the fall for this.

    Or maybe that was a double fake, and that this whole thing was set up as a distraction by Google to undermine iPhone.

    Or maybe it was actually stolen by the EFF, who then spoofed an FBI operation for Anonymous to find so that they could promote their agenda.

    (Or maybe you're completely right)

  5. Re:And that company is... by Sarten-X · · Score: 4, Interesting

    According to their article in Wikipedia, it's also a company that lists the Department Of State and the Public Relations Society of America among their customers.

    As soon as I saw that, my thought was "so that's where the kid thought he was".

    I figure a script kiddie broke into the Blue Toad servers, found some documents talking about working with the government (perhaps the FBI in particular), then found the UDIDs, and jumped to the conclusion that they had broken into an FBI system involved in domestic surveillance. Then they release it as Anonymous in an act of misguided privacy activism, throwing in an agent's name (possibly even mentioned in the found files) for credibility.

    I'm jumping to conclusions myself, though, and assuming that there's some shred of truth to anybody's statements.

    --
    You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
  6. Why Why Why by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The data file is of no use to the FBI. It has way too little data compared to total number of devices. UDID's have been of no use to anyone since about the start of the year.

    The data file also had WAY too little information (too sparse) to be of much use in correlation. In short, there's no good reason why the FBI would care about a list of UDID's even if you tried to GIVE them to the FBI.

    There is no logical reason why the FBI would care at all about the data set shown; to my mind that's the most damning evidence against the FBI ever having had it.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  7. Re:And that company is... by Infernal+Device · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...and it could just as easily be a case where the FBI requested this list from Blue Toad, or Blue Toad submitted this list as part of an investigation. All we know now is where the data likely originated -- which is precisely where everyone assumed it originated anyway (a single developer list).

    It could also be that the developer got hacked w/o being involved with the FBI in any way, prior to the attack.

    Which, on the whole, is a lot simpler explanation than a conspiracy theory.

    --
    "My God...it's full of trolls!"