AntiSec claimed to have gleaned the posted information from a stolen FBI laptop containing a full 12 million IDs, along with user names, device names, notification tokens, cell phone numbers and more, collected into a database.
The Bureau took to Twitter to reach the Apple-aficionado masses, and tweeted that the allegations are "totally false" and that the agency "never had the info in question.”
Meanwhile in a press statement it said that "at this time, there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data."
AntiSec was quick to respond to the FBI's official statement. “This is far from denial," it said. "Before you deny too much: Remember we're sitting on 3TB additional data. We have not even started.”
Despite the ominous tone, the database information that AntiSec released is relatively harmless, and geared to point out vulnerabilities in mobile security and raise the specter of possible cyber-spying activities by the government.
"Since AntiSec removed all the personal data from the data they released, this hack doesn't present much risk to end users," explained Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle. "UDIDs in isolation aren't a big deal. In fact, Apple used to permit apps to spew UDIDs all over the place, so there's a lot of UDID data already in the public domain. For a while, there were a lot of apps using UDID and personal data to track users activity and selling it to advertisers."
The move is still meant to be taken seriously as a piece of official protest, AntiSec said. “People are frustrated, they feel the system manipulating them more than ever,” it posted. “Never underestimate the power of frustrated people. For the last few years we have broke [sic] into systems belonging to governments and big corporations just to find out they are spending millions of tax dollars to spy on their citizens. They work to discredit dissenting voices. They pay their friends for overpriced and insecure networks and services.”