Hackers claim to have 12 mn Apple device IDs

A group of hackers has released a set of identification numbers of one million Apple devices and claimed to have obtained 12 million Apple device IDs by hacking into the laptop of an FBI agent, Xinhua reported.

In a message posted on Pastebin.com, hacker group AntiSec said it obtained a file with "a list of 12,367,232 Apple iOS devices, including Unique Device Identifiers (UDID), user names, name of devices, type of device, Apple Push Notification Service tokens, zipcodes, cellphone numbers, addresses, etc".

UDID is a sequence of 40 letters and numbers specific to Apple devices, that establish a unique identity in Apple's app system. Security experts said the leak of UDID on their own poses little danger to the device owners.

The hackers claimed they obtained the file by hacking into the laptop of FBI agent Christopher K. Stangl, a member of the FBI's Cyber Action Team, Xinhua said. The FBI told the Los Angeles Times that it was aware of the alleged hack but could not comment further. Apple made no comment on the issue.

Some experts doubted the hackers' claim of breaching the FBI, saying there are many ways that the file could have been obtained. Graham Cluley, a researcher with security firm Sophos, said in a blog post that the person who wrote the Pastebin message may be a German speaker because of some German phrases used in the post.