AT&T blames hackers for breaching iPad security

The american telecoms giant AT&T was last night engaged in a bitter war of words with hackers who obtained the email addresses of thousands of customers using the Apple iPad.

Goatse Security, an underground hacking and security group, retaliated after AT&T sent a letter to customers apologising for the breach. In the letter, the telecoms company said that "unauthorised computer 'hackers' maliciously exploited a function designed to make your iPad log-in process faster", adding that it would assist an FBI investigation into the incident.

Goatse was able to obtain the email addresses of 114,000 users who connect their iPads to the internet via AT&T's 3G telephone network. Among the addresses were those for the New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. AT&T said Goatse went "to great efforts" to obtain the data – but the group said it only took an hour.

Escher Auernheimer, of Goatse, said it had waited until AT&T had rectified the problem before going public. "If not for our firm talking about the exploit to third parties who subsequently notified them, they would have never fixed it," he wrote on the group's blog. "So get real. You fucked up, we helped you that figure out [sic] and informed the public. You should thank us."