Apple’s iPad security breach reveals vulnerability of mobile devices
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.