Do you own an Apple Ipad? Spammers may very well have your email now!

[rainbow_roo]

From: http://gawker.com/5559346/

Apple's Worst Security Breach: 114,000 iPad Owners Exposed

Apple has suffered another embarrassment. A security breach has exposed iPad owners including dozens of CEOs, military officials, and top politicians. They-and every other buyer of the cellular-

Comments

[spotzwastaken]

I can't find an ounce of pity in me for anyone who bought something so stupid to begin with.

[britishredfox]

It's important to note that this appears to have been a security breach of AT&T, not Apple themselves. While it's certainly perfectly valid to dislike Apple for their App Store policies and so forth, calling this "Apple's Security Breach" is a misnomer. While Apple could perhaps be criticised for not ensuring that this leak couldn't have taken place, it seems to me that the brunt of the blame should lie with AT&T.

[rainbow_roo]

The title does seem a bit misleading, however:
(From the article)

Although the security vulnerability was confined to AT&T servers, Apple bears responsibility for ensuring the privacy of its users, who must provide the company with their email addresses to activate their iPads. This is particularly the case given that U.S. iPad 3G customers have no choice in mobile carriers - AT&T has an exclusive lock, at least for now. Given the lock-in and the tight coupling of the iPad with AT&T's cellular data network, Apple has a pronounced responsibility to patrol the network vendors it chooses to align and share customer data with.

Is Apple totally at fault here? No, of course not. Do their business practices involved play a part in the fuck-up? Yeah, they kind of do, actually. Y'see - Apple chooses to stick specifically with AT&T as the only carrier for the Ipad's service. Given that - some of the responsibility falls upon them to make sure that the partner they've chose is reliable and able to protect customer data.

[britishredfox]

That's certainly true. Here in the UK, all of the major phone networks have announced they'll be supporting and selling the iPhone 4, and I believe the same applies to the iPad, but the situation in the US - with Apple choosing to remain exclusively with AT&T - doesn't help consumers, and by the looks of this, certainly isn't helping them either.