Well now. This is interesting. The FBI says it never had any of the Apple UDIDs claimed to have been stolen by hacker group AntiSec.
The hacker collective said it had well over 12-million IDs that include personal information such as user names, addresses, device names and mobile numbers. In a statement released to AllThingsD, the FBI said it had no knowledge of the hack. In fact, it went so far as to say that it didn’t even keep any of the information AntiSec claimed to have:
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The FBI is aware of published reports alleging that an FBI laptop was compromised and private data regarding Apple UDIDs was exposed. At this time there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data.
The US federal agency then followed up with a tweet that was even more emphatic in its denial that the story had any substance to it:
Statement soon on reports that one of our laptops with personal info was hacked. We never had info in question. Bottom Line: TOTALLY FALSE
— FBI PressOffice (@FBIPressOffice) September 4, 2012
AntiSec followed this up with a rebuttal, reminding the FBI of the amount of data it was sitting on and hinted that there might be more to come:
Also, before you deny too much: Remember we’re sitting on 3TB additional data. We have not even started. #funtimes #fff
— AnonymousIRC (@AnonymousIRC) September 4, 2012
In another statement meanwhile the group said that “the fact that the FBI has no ‘evidence’ of a data breach on one of their notebooks, does not allow the conclusion that it never happened.”
It also hinted that those affected by the hack might all have one app in common.
People whose UDID was on the list released by AntiSec might want to compare their installed apps. A common culprit might be found.
— AnonymousIRC (@AnonymousIRC) September 4, 2012
It’s still a little too early to call the real culprit what’s turning into an entertaining game of “Liar liar pants on fire”. If the FBI really didn’t have the data, that begs the question, where did AntiSec steal it from?
