Have an Apple account? The FBI knows who U are

[wMulew]

A GROUP of computer hackers claim to have stolen 12 million Apple IDs - which they say were being stored by the FBI.

Shady web collective AntiSec have released some details from one million of the IDs as proof of their efforts - although the most personal details from each have been removed.

An Apple ID contains information about a user which can include usernames, mobile phone numbers and even addresses.

So far the only pieces of information released have been Unique Device Identifiers - a kind of serial number for the iPhone or iPads the Apple ID has been logged into.

In a statement the group - who have links to hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec - say they obtained the Apple IDs from an FBI Agent's laptop - raising questions about why the FBI were storing that information.

Eric Hemmendinger, a security expert with Tata Communications, said based on past reports from Anonymous, the claims were likely to be true.

And he added: “The question is not whether it’s accurate, it is why did the Feds have the information and why did they not take due care to secure it?”

Graham Cluley of the British security firm Sophos, said: “Quite why the FBI was collecting the UDIDs and personal information of millions of iPhone and iPad users is not yet clear - but it’s obvious that the data (and the computer it was apparently stored on) was not adequately secured."

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4520904/Computer-hackers-AntiSec-claim-to-have-stolen-12-million-Apple-IDs-from-FBI.html#ixzz25ZcTmLxp

 

[ConyuConhee]

what the problems?
same apply to any handphone
if your SIM card is registered

your passport is already a tracking device....
haha

 

[Westwood]

FBI denies hackers accessed iPhone, iPad users' personal data on FBI laptop

AFP September 05, 2012 12:42pm

A group of computer hackers have released a list of 1 million iPhone and iPad IDs, which they claim to have found on an FBI laptop along with users' personal information.

The FBI is disputing a computer hacker group's claim that it stole personal identification data on more than 1 million Apple device owners from an FBI agent's laptop.

The group called AntiSec, linked to the hacking collective known as Anonymous, posted one million Apple user identifiers claimed to be part of a larger group of 12 million, purportedly obtained from an FBI laptop.

The hackers said they found the data during the second week of March 2012, when they hacked "a Dell Vostro notebook, used by Supervisor Special Agent Christopher K Stangl from FBI Regional Cyber Action
Team and New York FBI Office Evidence Response Team".

On the notebook's desktop they found a file called "NCFTA_iOS_devices_intel.csv". The NCFTA is the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance, a government taskforce set up to share data between private industry and law enforcement in order to combat cybercrime.

The FBI says it never asked for and never possessed the database that the group is posting on a website.

Federal officials are warning that computer users should be careful when clicking on such links because they may contain malware that can infect computers.

Apple did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The group said many of the user IDs had come with the users' user names, addresses and mobile phone numbers - which the group had edited out of the data it released.

Social media and news blogs were aflutter with the news. The tech blog Geekosystem called it "one of the worst privacy disasters yet" and various Twitter comments said the news suggested the FBI is tracking Apple users.

One website set up a database to help users determine if their device was on the hacked list of Apple unique device IDs (UDIDs).

"Quite why the FBI was collecting the UDIDs and personal information of millions of iPhone and iPad users is not yet clear - but it's obvious that the data (and the computer it was apparently stored on) was not adequately secured," said Graham Cluley of the British security firm Sophos.

"My suspicion is that the hackers were more interested in embarrassing the FBI's team than endangering innocent users. All the same, hacking into computers is a criminal act - and I would anticipate that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies will be keen to hunt down those responsible."

Others expressed concern about the apparent leak.

"Since UDIDs are unique to each iPhone and iPad, having yours end up in the wrong hands is a concern," said Josh Ong on the technology blog The Next Web.

"The bigger issue, however, is that they were tied to additional personal information, including user names, device names, notification tokens, cell phone numbers and addresses, that could potentially lead to identity theft."

Johannes Ullrich of the SANS Internet Storm Center said it was difficult to verify the report.

"There is nothing else in the file that would implicate the FBI. So this data may very well come from another source. But it is not clear who would have a file like this," he told AFP.

Mr Ullrich said it is unclear why the FBI, if the report were true, would have the data.

"The size of the file... would imply a widespread, not a targeted tracking operation, or the file was just kept in case any of the users in the file needs to be tracked," he said.

"The significance of this breach very much hinges on the source, which as far as I know, hasn't been authenticated yet. The data is, however, real based on some of the reports that people do find their own UDID in the file."

 

[halsey02]

what the problems?
same apply to any handphone
if your SIM card is registered

your passport is already a tracking device....
haha

If we are doing legitimate business with Apple, what is the worry? Is it true that our biometric passport which conform to certain standard have a built in RFID & within 300m radius, the information of the passport can be read?