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Pols and Pundits Express Shock At FBI Involvement In AT&T's iPad Email Leak

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into a possible security breach of AT&T's website, which exposed the email addresses of some owners of Apple iPad devices.

"The FBI is aware of these possible computer intrusions and has opened an investigation," an FBI spokeswoman tells The Wall Street Journal. Schweit said the FBI began the investigation Thursday, but wouldn't tell The Journal what the bureau is looking at.

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."

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