Mobile devices are slick, powerful and convenient, but the news this week that AT&T suffered a data breach on thousands of iPads highlighted another quality: They’re vulnerable.

As more personal information migrates to mobile devices, experts say hackers have increasing opportunities to track people, listen in on phone calls and intercept e-mails or documents.

The security breach in a Web service used by Apple’s new iPad 3G that was revealed this week suggested the potential stakes involved. Victims included not only thousands of ordinary consumers but also powerful figures in government — including White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg — and the military. Government agencies and companies whose employees’ information was exposed were scrambling Friday to determine whether that data could have been used to help hackers track the movements of or get access to documents and e-mails of subscribers.

There’s no evidence so far that happened, but it’s hard to predict the ramifications of this type of security breach. The vulnerability exposed only e-mail addresses and the unique identification numbers that the devices use to communicate with the phone network for at least 114,000 iPad owners. And that alone can’t be used to gain access to someone’s iPad.

But in combination with other hacking strategies, security experts say, having the data could make it significantly easier to gain access to sensitive information.

“I don’t want to fearmonger, but every time you reveal information that wasn’t previously public, it gives hackers an advantage,” said Nick DePetrillo, an independent researcher who specializes in wireless security.

Mobile flaws exposed

The flaw, which was not in the Apple iPad’s software but in an AT&T Web site the device accesses, was discovered last month by a private security expert playing around with his own iPad. AT&T said it had fixed the problem by Tuesday and the issue was made public Wednesday by an online publication. Both AT&T and Apple have declined to comment further on the matter.

The fact that a hobbyist was, in hours, so easily able get access to information that Apple and AT&T, two of the country’s most respected corporations, vowed to keep private and anonymous has jolted law enforcement officials, regulators and consumers, who had not made security for mobile devices a priority.

FBI spokesman Bryan L. Travers said the bureau had “opened an investigation to address the potential cyber threat” of the breach but declined to answer specific questions. Gawker Media, which owns the Web site that first reported the news, said Friday that it had been contacted by the bureau and asked not to dispose of the data it received from the security experts who found the flaw.

The Federal Communications Commission said Friday that it would increase its scrutiny of online security and privacy as a result of both the iPad breach and a separate incident in May involving vans for Google’s StreetView service, which captured data from homes, offices and other open wireless networks as the vans mapped neighborhoods.

Some government agencies and companies whose e-mail addresses had been compromised reacted with caution. The New York Times warned employees to turn off access to AT&T’s 3G network until the company’s security experts could study the problem. The Pentagon, which says the devices registered under .mil were personal ones not issued by the Defense Department, said it’s in the process of “trying to ascertain who and how many may be affected.” The Federal Aviation Administration, which had purchased 10 iPads for a pilot project, said it had contacted AT&T to “determine what steps are being taken to prevent this from happening again.” Others shrugged off the possibility of a threat.

Apple in spotlight

In the old world of desktops, Apple could take comfort in the fact that Microsoft was the prime target of hackers in part because of the ubiquity of its Windows operating system.
[Washington Post]

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Analysis: Twitter arrives on Android phones and winningly delivers the goods.

A couple of weeks ago, when Twitter announced that it would soon release an official Twitter app for Android phones, I fantasized that the company was going to port Loren Brichter’s miraculous Tweetie Twitter for iPhone to Android. It didn’t. But it’s done something pretty pleasing on its own terms: It’s released a really nice original (and fre) Twitter app for Android. For now, it’s replacing the very-respectable-but-not-spectacular Seesmic as my Android Twitter client of choice.

The best thing about Twitter for Android is the user interface. It’s arguably a little on the twee side: the Twitter bird is everywhere, there are animated clouds, and trending topics joggle up and down. But overall, it looks really attractive, it’s nicely intuitive, and everything’s legible — virtues which are never a given on the Android platform. (Twidroid Pro and TweetCaster are powerful Twitter clients for Android, but they make my eyeballs hurt.)

Twitter for Android’s most interesting feature is its contact syncing: You can meld your Twitterfriends with your Android contact list, merging photos and other information and putting links to tweets in Android’s contact list. (The program lets you choose between bringing all the people you’re following on Twitter into the Android contact list, or just syncing the people who are already there.) The client also supports geolocation and lists, has a widget, and is generally pretty full-featured with one notable exception: It doesn’t support multiple accounts.

I’m still getting my head around Twitter releasing its own client apps rather than leaving that challenge and opportunity to other folks. But this is a good one. And I’m keeping my fingers crossed that existing third-party Android developers will respond not by giving up but by trying to beat Twitter at its own game.
PC World

A 21-year-old bar visitor named Brian Hogan has been identified as the person who gave a technology blog Apple’s iPhone 4G prototype. Hogan’s attorney said Hogan thought the $5,000 payment was for exclusive access to the prototype. Other technology sites have reported they got inquires about access to the iPhone 4G prototype.

It’s unlikely that spending time in a bar ever made anyone as famous as Brian Hogan. The 21-year-old Californian was identified Thursday and quickly became well-known, since he was the remaining unknown character in the Case of the Missing-and-Then-Found iPhone 4G Prototype.
Earlier this month, technology blog Gizmodo posted photos and details about a prototype of an upcoming 4G version of Apple’s popular iPhone. The blog, owned by Gawker Media, said the prototype had been left in a Redwood City, Calif., bar, found by someone, and sold to the blog for $5,000.

That someone who found the prototype is now known to be Hogan.

‘Nothing Wrong’

Through his attorney, Jeffrey Bornstein, Hogan said he thought the payment by Gizmodo was for exclusive access to review the phone. His lawyer also told news media that the technology blog had said “there was nothing wrong in sharing the phone with the tech press.”

Wired.com first identified Hogan. That site said it followed clues on social-networking sites and verified his identity with someone involved in the prototype case.

According to his lawyer, Hogan was in the bar and someone else handed him the prototype after finding it on a bar stool. The person who handed the device asked if it was Hogan’s and then left the establishment. Hogan asked others if it was theirs, and then, when no one volunteered that it was, left the bar with it.

He then tried to look at a Facebook page on the phone, but it shut down and became inoperable. After removing a fake cover from the device, Hogan said he realized it wasn’t an iPhone currently on the market. A friend called AppleCare, Apple’s support service, to find out whose phone it might be, but was unsuccessful. Hogan made no other efforts to return the phone.

Apple reportedly wiped the unit remotely once it went missing. According to news reports, the employee who misplaced it in the bar was Apple software engineer Gray Powell, and the device was left at Gourmet Haus Staudt in Redwood City while he was celebrating his 27th birthday.

Backlash for Apple?

Several technology sites, including Wired.com, have reported they got inquiries about getting access to the prototype, but Gizmodo was the one that replied. After Gizmodo published the story, Hogan said people purporting to be Apple representatives appeared at his home and asked permission to search, but their request was denied.

Hogan said he has been interviewed by legal authorities, but has not been charged with any criminal activity. However, authorities in San Mateo County have been saying in the last week that they wanted to look at the person who found the iPhone as a possible theft suspect.

Bornstein said Hogan attended Santa Barbara City College as of 2008, but is now working and hopes to return to college.

Ken Dulaney, vice president for mobile computing at industry firm Gartner, said he doesn’t think Apple is suffering any negative publicity from this episode — at least so far. But Apple shouldn’t “try to be nasty about this,” he said.

“When the next iPhone comes out,” he predicted, “the lines will be longer than ever.”
NewsFactor Network

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