FBI Investigating Hack Into AT&T Accounts

The FBI declared on June 10, 2010 that it had started probing into a potential online attack from Goatse Security, an organization which says it hacked into over 100,000 accounts of AT&T Wireless.

Owing to this intrusion, about 114,000 e-mail addresses of iPad users are exposed to spear phishing and spam attacks. Spear phishing is an operation used for targeting specific entities handling high-value data. To obtain the e-mail IDs, the organization was required to insert an ICC-ID during an HTTP query into the flawed code that subsequently returned the ID for the particular iPad gadget.

With the help of legitimate-looking messages that appear to have come from Apple or AT&T, hackers may now introduce malware particularly spyware into gullible customers' iPads through the delivery of these messages.

Overall, security researchers claim that all the publicity related to this data intrusion is more because it involves a gadget from Apple or other brands rather than the iPad or even security of AT&T.

George Kurtz, Chief Technology Officer, McAfee, said that the publicity surrounding Apple devices such as the iPad and iPhone was astonishing. Yet, this kind of vulnerability wasn't truly news as they happened throughout the day, he contended, as reported by Afterdawn on June 12, 2010.

Of the customers who were affected by the hack, Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff in White House, and Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, are prominent names along with many members of the media, military and political elite.

As far as AT&T is concerned, the security violation has hit the wireless company hard again, lowering the loyalty and trust of users that severely damage its advantageous relationship with Apple Computers. Although there was no remark about the incident from Apple officials, they reassured people using iPad that there was no danger to their machines. They also referred users' remaining concerns and questions to AT&T. Both AT&T and Apple stressed that the security violation in no way suggested that the in-built security mechanism of iPad was flawed.

Related article: FBI’s ICCC Annual Report Discusses Fraudulent and Non-Fraudulent Complaints

» SPAMfighter News - 6/23/2010