Earlier this week, Gawker
reported that the email addresses of thousands of iPad owners -- including White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Mayor Bloomberg -- were exposed by AT&T in what the blog is called the "worst
security breach" in Apple's history.
"A small group of computer experts that calls itself Goatse Security said it discovered the flaw, explaining that it was able to find the email
addresses by guessing numbers that identify iPads connected to AT&T's mobile network," reports The Journal. "The group said it uncovered 114,000 email addresses, including those of prominent officials
in companies, politics and the military." The Journal did not comment on the gross indignity of the group's name.
Along with the FBI, "The Federal Communications Commission has also
expressed its concern at the data breach, reports The Telegraph. "This breach
underscores the need for robust cyber security," Jamie Barnett, chief of the Commission's public safety and homeland security bureau, tells the paper.
In addition to the
security lapse, both Apple and AT&T are being criticized for their lack of commutation over the incident.
Influential tech blogger Kara Swisher, whose own email was exposed by the
breach, was somewhat relieved to finally receive an apology from Mark Siegel,
executive director of media relations at AT&T. Yet, "While I do appreciate the reaching out, I still want to hear -- as do others affected -- officially from AT&T about exactly what's what," Swisher
wrote on All Things Digital.
Still, "I'm a bit surprised that this sort of screwup warranted an FBI investigation," comments Fast Company's Dan Nosowitz. "I suspect it's in large part due to the fact that many of the specific names leaked were high-profile government or military employees ... But the fact that Rahm Emanuel has an iPad doesn't make this a bigger security leak."
Indeed, as Mayor Bloomberg -- one of the exposed -- tells Fox News: "It shouldn't be pretty hard to
figure out my email address ... and if you send me an email and I don't want to read it, I don't open it ... To me it wasn't that big of a deal."