Two Charged In iPad Hack That Exposed 120,000 Users' Data

Last June, a group of hackers calling themselves Goatse Security claimed they had exploited a security flaw in AT&T's 3G network and had gained access to personal information belonging to thousands of iPad users. On Tuesday, two Goatse members--Daniel Spitler and Andrew Auernheimer--were arrested in connection with the June incident.

While the original number of compromised accounts was thought to have been 114,000, new figures reveal that personal data was obtained from 120,000 iPad 3G users. According to Reuters, both Spitler and Auernheimer were "charged with one count of fraud and one count of conspiracy to access a computer without authorization."

At the time of the breach, AT&T told The Huffington Post that email addresses were the only data accessed by the Goatse hack, and that the carrier had worked quickly to fix the security flaw.

According to Read Write Web, the victims of this attack include prominent government officials and businesspeople:

Based on the email addresses gathered, the hackers had managed to snoop out accounts from the major service branches of the military, NASA, the FCC, DARPA, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Institute of Health [...] In other industries, the affected individuals included top executives from The New York Times Company, Dow Jones, Condé Nast, Viacom, Time Warner, News Corporation, HBO, Hearst as well as others from Google, Amazon, AOL, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.

The Wall Street Journal reports that on Tuesday, Spitler will appear in court in Newark, New Jersey, while Auernheimer will appear in court in Fayetteville, Arkansas. "The U.S. attorney in Newark is expected to discuss the charges in more detail at a news conference at 12:30 p.m. EST Tuesday," Journal also notes.