Two members of the Goatse Security group, who outed an AT&T security breach that exposed over 120,000 iPad 3G customers’ personal data, were hit with criminal charges in federal court.
Prosecuters said that Daniel Spitler and Andrew Auernheimer were each charged with a count of fraud and a count of conspiracy to access a computer without authorization.
The charges come seven months after vulnerability was discovered by researchers at Goatse security, who wrote a script that harvested iPad 3G owners’ ICC-IDs (or integrated circuit card identifier, used to identify SIM cards to a network) and email addresses through exploiting a hole on AT&T’s website.
The number of accounts compromised — first thought to be about 114,000 — was upped to 120,000, some of them belonging to celebrities or other notable public figures.
The F.B.I announced that it will be holding a press conference later today to discuss charges against the pair.
Reuters reported that neither Goastse nor Apple had any immediate comment, we’ll keep you posted.
Via Reuters
Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco freelance writer who heads up Cult of Mac Magazine, our weekly publication available on iTunes. You can find her on Twitter and Google+. If you’re doing something new, cool and Apple-related, email her.
