Hackers Bite Apple, AT&T To Breach 114K iPad Owners

Some early iPad adopters got a special bonus prize for buying a device that’s sure to be replaced with a vastly superior model a year from now — a data breach in which hackers unearthed account info from 114,000 users, including newscaster Diane Sawyer, New York mayor Michael Bloomerg and movie kingpin Harvey Weinstein.

Valleywag reports the BP oil spill-sized leak included the victims’ email addresses and their ICC-IDs, which Valleywag says are used to tie the iPad’s SIM cards to subscribers.

AT&T, taking things “VERY” seriously, tells Valleywag:

AT&T was informed by a business customer on Monday of the potential exposure of their iPad ICC IDS. The only information that can be derived from the ICC IDS is the e-mail address attached to that device.

This issue was escalated to the highest levels of the company and was corrected by Tuesday; and we have essentially turned off the feature that provided the e-mail addresses.

The person or group who discovered this gap did not contact AT&T.

We are continuing to investigate and will inform all customers whose e-mail addresses and ICC IDS may have been obtained.

We take customer privacy very seriously and while we have fixed this problem, we apologize to our customers who were impacted.

Apple’s Worst Security Breach: 114,000 iPad Owners Exposed [Valleywag]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.