Gawker

A hacking group has obtained the e-mail addresses of 114,000 owners of 3G iPads by exploiting a security hole on AT&T‘s Web site, according to a report by Gawker.

The group also obtained the identification number that those iPads use when they communicate over AT&T’s network, known as an ICC-ID. It is not clear what that information could be used for.

According to Gawker, which was given a copy of the list of e-mail addresses, it includes military personnel, staff members in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and people at the Justice Department, NASA and the Department of Homeland Security. Private-sector addresses that were exposed include those of executives at the New York Times Company, Dow Jones, Condé Nast, Viacom, Time Warner, the News Corporation, HBO and Hearst, along with bankers and venture capitalists.

The hacking group, Goatse Security, found that a program on AT&T’s Web site, when given an iPad’s ID number, would return the owner’s e-mail address. It used a script that could guess IDs and collect the associated e-mail addresses. The group eventually notified AT&T of the breach, and the security hole was closed.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment. After news surfaced of the revealed e-mail addresses AT&T responded with the following statement: