Apple, FBI deny hacker claims on leaked iPhone IDs
San Francisco/Berlin - Apple on Wednesday denied that it gave the IDs of millions of iPhones to the FBI, a day after the hacker group Antisec claimed to be in possession of an alleged FBI file that lists the owners of millions of iPhones and iPads.
"The FBI has not requested this information from Apple, nor have we provided it to the FBI or any organization," Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris told the Wall Street Journal.
The FBI also denied the Antisec claims.
"The FBI is aware of published reports alleging that an FBI laptop was compromised and private data regarding Apple (IDs) was exposed," the agency said in a statement. "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 statements came after Antisec published a file online that it said listed the serial numbers and users of 1 million of the Apple devices. It said it had trimmed out full personal names, addresses and cellphone numbers from this public version.
Antisec questioned how the FBI could have legally obtained such data. Until February it was possible for certain apps to collect such information from devices and gather it at a central location, but Apple has now banned apps which collect serial numbers.
Antisec said it was publishing the summary file to prove its claim. The full file, allegedly obtained in March from the notebook computer of an FBI agent in New York, had been much larger, listing 12 million devices, according to the statement.//DPA
