Thursday, November 7, 2024

FBI Denies It Was Source of Leaked Apple Device ID Data

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Computerworld: The FBI has issued a statement denying that it was the source of Apple UDIDs posted by hackers associated with AntiSec. It stated, “At this time, there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data.”

Hacktivist group AntiSec claimed that it obtained 12 million Apple UDIDs, plus related personal data,  from a laptop belonging to an FBI agent. However, some people believe that the data may actually have come from an app developer. “All of this information could have been collected from an app transmitting data to a server,” wrote technology blogger Marco Arment. “For instance, this is exactly the information that an ad network would want to collect. And in order to get stats from 12 million devices, it would probably need to be from a set of popular, free apps… where you’d probably see ads.”

AntiSec predicted that the FBI would deny being the source of the data. “FBI will, as usual, deny or ignore this uncomfortable thingie and everybody will forget the whole thing at amazing speed,” the hackers wrote.

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