FBI Investigating iPad E-Mail Breach

U.S. federal investigators are now looking into the breach of 114,000 e-mail addresses of iPad owners using AT&T’s website. The FBI said Thursday it was aware of a breach in AT&T’s online security and has begun an investigation.

Wednesday, carrier AT&T acknowledged the email addresses of iPad owners were compromised after a security group announced they had discovered a flaw in AT&T security allowing email identities to be gathered.

The group, Goatse Security, found that AT&T’s website asked for the iPad’s unique ID number, displaying the associated e-mail address. The group then created a program that sent random ID numbers and collecting the corporate, military and political e-mail identities stored by AT&T.

Although Apple had no comment on the security breach, AT&T has been “in close contact” with the Cupertino, Calif. iPad maker, according to the Wall Street Journal. AT&T security chief Ed Amoroso told the newspaper storing iPad owner e-mail addresses during registration was probably a mistake.

This is just the latest chapter in a rocky relationship between AT&T and Apple customers. The carrier has been criticized for service problems. AT&T is currently the exclusive carrier for the iPad, as well as the iPhone.

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[via Wall Street Journal]

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