New York mayor shrugs off iPad security leak

NEW York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was among those exposed because of a security vulnerability.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was among those whose name and email address was exposed. Picture: AP

NEW York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was among those whose name and email address was exposed because of a security vulnerability with phone carrier AT&T.

But the billionaire media mogul shrugged it off overnight and said he didn't understand all the fuss.

"It shouldn't be pretty hard to figure out my email address," Mr Bloomberg said.

"If you send me an email and I don't want to read it, I don't open it. To me it wasn't that big of a deal."

AT&T said yesterday a security weak spot exposed the email addresses — but nothing else — of more than 100,000 iPad users.

Only users who signed up for AT&T's 3G wireless internet service were affected.

The problem had to do with the way AT&T's website prompted iPad users to log onto their AT&T accounts.

A hacker group claims to have found the weakness and said it was able to trick AT&T's site into giving up more than 114,000 email addresses, including those of famous people and government officials.

Mr Bloomberg, who founded the financial information company Bloomberg LP and has an estimated $18 billion fortune, said such glitches were part of modern life.

"We live in a world where information is available all over the place, and there's going to be security breaches every day all over the world," he said.

"That's what happens when you have information."

In recent weeks, Mr Bloomberg has often touted the Apple tablet as a helpful tool for managing a city of 8.4 million people.

AT&T said yesterday it would notify all iPad users whose email addresses may have been exposed.

"We take customer privacy very seriously and while we have fixed this problem, we apologise to our customers who were impacted," it said.

The FBI has opened an investigation into the incident.

With AFP