The internet is buzzing with news stories of iPad owners being affected by a recent data breach. The data of owners of this AT&T device was hacked into and over 100,000 email addresses are at risk. It is reported that this data alone won’t give thieves access to the devices, but it will make it much easier for them to be able to access sensitive information.

The most recent news stories reflect that influential individuals, such as the Mayor of New York City and the White House Chief of Staff were affected by this recent data breach.

The breach is a result of a flaw with a web site owned by AT&T, not with the iPad itself. This breach was found by a private security expert who personally owns an iPad and was toying around with the device. By Tuesday of this week, AT&T reported that the issue had been fixed.

“AT&T was informed by a business customer on Monday of the potential exposure of their iPad,” AT&T spokeswoman Susan Bell said. “The only information that can be derived from the ICC IDS [customer identification system] 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.”

Both the FBI and the FCC have responded to this recent data breach by increasing their investigation into any threat this might pose.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Data Breach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.