A hacktivists collective that claims to be working under the AntiSec banner has recently published a statement on Pastebin saying that it has leaked more than a million of Apple unique identifiers, which were allegedly found on a compromised FBI laptop. In response, the FBI has denied any evidence suggesting such a compromise or the existence of such data at all.
Nevertheless, AntiSec claimed at the very beginning that it would be no surprise if FBI denied or ignored everything. AntiSec instead is shouting since it seems their best bet, and even then they would probably see their damage control teams going hard to lobby media to discredit this.
In the meantime, the group behind the release explained that the FBI’s laptop belonged to Supervisor Special Agent Christopher K. Stangl, and was breached this past March through the vulnerability in Java.
One of the leaked files allegedly contained in it a list of Apple iOS devices, which included user names, device details, zipcodes, cellphone numbers, and addresses. The hackers say that nowhere else is the list referenced, nor its purpose. Moreover, it seems incomplete, because it has many empty spaces as well.
Meanwhile, Twitter accounts associated with Anonymous hackers are more cautious: for instance, @AnonyOps tweeted that since FBI said there was no hack, it means that either they’re lying or they gave the data up to some hackers, which happened before. There were other warnings saying that if this is the case, the government could be trying to bolster the credibility of people within AntiSec, and hackers should expect the announcement of arrests in a few months.
They also tweeted that it might happen that the information in question came from a hacked vendor of an iPhone app, so they might be targeting Stangl for embarrassment. Thus far, the Next Web has published an instrument which could help people check to see if their UDID or device was compromised.
The experts are quite interested in the matter and are looking forward to see whether this fizzles out or blows up in a big way. The Feds are alleged to have been involved in sting operations earlier, but the release in question could very well be genuine. As for the software giant, Apple has also caused paranoid rumblings by receiving its latest patent which enabled it to remotely disable protesters' phone cameras.
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