June 10, 2010
AT&T; is saying very little publicly about a breach of its security software that allowed a team of hackers to access and download email addresses of 114,000 purchasers of the Apple iPad.
Computer experts interviewed by ComputerWorld say it wasn't all that hard to do because AT&T; uses "poorly-designed" software.
The story first broke Wednesday when the tech blog Gizmodo, a Gawkers site, reported that a hacking group known as Goatse Security had used a PHP script to retrieve the email addresses from AT&T;'s servers.
The iPad 3G comes with a SIM card with a 19-digit identifying number. When someone buys one of the popular tablet computers and signs up for AT&T; service, the wireless carrier automatically detects the ID number and asks for a contact email address. The email address is used as a user ID for login purposes.
