June 11, 2010

FBI investigating breach of security of iPad owners

by

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Thursday that it was investigating a security breach on AT&T‘s Web site that allowed a security group to obtain the e-mail addresses of 114,000 iPad 3G owners,” says Nick Belton in a New York Times report on the Bits blog. As a MobyLives report noted yesterday, the breach had exposed info about tons of iPad owners including bigwigs such as New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson, Diane Sawyer of ABC News, film mogul Harvey Weinstein, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. As the Times report notes, the breach also included “senior officials from several government agencies including the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House.”

The Times doesn’t have a lot of additional info, though, beyond an FBI spokesperson telling Belton, “The F.B.I. is aware of these possible computer intrusions and has opened an investigation to address the potential cyber threat.”

AT&T, meanwhile, says it’s fixed the problem, and Apple still refuses to comment.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

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