Apple denies providing FBI with list of device IDs
Apple, responding to a hacker group’s claim that the group stole 12 million Apple device identification numbers from an FBI laptop, denied Wednesday providing such a list to the agency.
“The FBI has not requested this information from Apple, nor have we provided it to the FBI or any organization,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said.
Apple’s statement adds to the mystery surrounding the alleged list, which FBI has denied having. A hacker group called AntiSec, which is associated with the group known as Anonymous, has maintained that it stole 12 million device IDs from an FBI agent’s computer. The group posted 1 million of the alleged ID numbers on a website this week.
“You know you’re doing something right if @FBIPressOffice throws caps at you on twitter to deny an #Anonymous statement,” AntiSec said on Twitter.
Apple reiterated to the Los Angeles Times that the IDs, known as unique device identifiers, or UDIDs, are to be phased out in the future.
“With iOS 6, we introduced a new set of APIs meant to replace the use of the UDID, and will soon be banning the use of UDID,” Muller said.
Some security experts speculated that the alleged IDs may have come from app developers who have access to them.
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