One million Apple IDs leaked online, hackers claim

A hacking group claims to have released one million Apple device IDs that it says were stolen from an FBI computer.

The group AntiSec also claims to have access to more than 12 million other IDs, which it has not released, as well as account holders' personal information. The personal information is said to include user names, device names, telephone numbers and addresses.

  According to experts this information could be handed to spammers and potentially used to infect computers and steal credit card details. In a statement published online the group said that it had published the information to bring attention to the FBI apparently using the details to track Americans. While the personal information has not been releaseed, the hackers claim that a significant number of users will be able to search for their device, using their Apple device ID The statement said that the laptop "was breached using the AtomicReferenceArray vulnerability on Java.

During the shell session some files were downloaded from his Desktop folder." "One of them with the name of ”NCFTA_iOS_devices_intel.csv” turned to be a list of 12,367,232 Apple iOS devices including Unique Device Identifiers (UDID), user names, name of device, type of device, Apple Push Notification Service tokens, zipcodes, cellphone numbers, addresses, etc." Graham Cluley, a computer security expert at Sophos said that the hackers may have chosen not to release personal information, to make it more valuable to criminals. "That is obviously information that has a real value.

 It could be abused in several ways. By publicising the Apple ID details what they are doing is saying we have got all this data- we can prove that we have got it and Apple can test whether these device numbers are correct or not. "They probably either want to exploit [the details] themselves or they might for instance want to sell it on the computer underground to spammers who can send a targeted campaign to those email addresses."

"Maybe it would be claiming to come from Apple, maybe it would contain malicious links or be designed to infect people's computers and potentially steal information such as credit card details " AntiSec, or the Anti Security Movement, is opposed to the computer security industry. Experts say that hacking is a worldwide problem and has become much more visible in the last couple of years, because of the rise of so-called 'hacktivism'

This mixture of hacking and activism is designed to discredit and embarrass large scale organisations. AntiSec said it will not provide further statements until a photo of a writer at a US-based gossip website is featured on the site's front page dressed in a tutu. Adrian Chen is a writer at Gawker who has criticised hacking groups in the past.

Apple declined to comment.

source: telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9519738/One-million-Apple-IDs-leaked-online-hackers-claim.html#

iPhone 5 to go on sale in a month's time, reports suggest

The much-rumoured new Apple iPhone could be in stores in just under a month, according to a new report.

An anonymous source, claimed to be an employee of Verizon, told TechCrunch that the US telecoms giant was restricting all its staff from taking any holiday between September 21 and September 30.

Apple is expected to announce the new iPhone - often referred to as the iPhone 5 despite it actually being the sixth generation of the handset - on September 12.

The firm tends to release its new mobile products on Fridays to give them a full weekend of sales, similar to the approach taken with blockbuster movies.

Taking into account the Verizon source's information, this would suggest that sales will start, in the US at least, on September 21, as Verizon would want all its staff focused on what could be the biggest product launch in Apple's history.

Last year Apple announced the iPhone 4S on Tuesday, October 4. The phone went up for pre-order on the Friday (October 7), and was available in stores a week later on October 14.

But this autumn, Apple is expected to start pre-orders on the same day as it launches the iPhone 5 (September 12), and then ship the smartphone and make it available in stores ten days later on September 21.

There have been reports that Apple will use the launch event to also announce its rumoured Apple iPad Mini, a small-screen version of the iPad tablet.

Sources within Apple European resellers told MacRumors that they have been told by Apple to make new space in their display sections, suggesting that a new product is coming.

Some sources say that older products such as the Mac Pro, Mac Mini and certain iPods are being moved out to make space for a mystery new product.

However, other reports have suggested that Apple will not look to overcrowd the September 12 launch event with two major products, and instead just announce the iPhone 5 as expected.

The firm could then hold a separate event for the iPad Mini in October, but still look forward to having a bumper Christmas with both products on sale in key markets, including the UK.

source: digitalspy.co.uk/tech/news/a401034/iphone-5-to-go-on-sale-in-a-months-time-reports-suggest.html