It seems the Anonymous hacking group acquired more than 12 million Apple UDID identifier codes and to prove their hacking prowess they released 1,000,001 of them to the public. Even more shocking is that they claim they got them from an FBI laptop they hacked. Once the story garnered some attention from the press the FBI emphatically denied the allegations that one of their laptops that holds personal and sensitive information was hacked. The FBI even tweeted about the incident stating that it was “TOTALLY FALSE.”

The UDID or Unique Device Identifier is 40 letters and numbers specific to each device such as an iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. The code is used for connecting devices to the users Apple ID which allows the device to install apps purchased at the App Store and music from iTunes. It also lets Apple send push notifications and iMessages to the proper device.

Apple finally broke their silence on the matter and of course denied the validity of the story by issuing the following statement to AllThingsD. “The FBI has not requested this information from Apple, nor have we provided it to the FBI or any organization.”

So where exactly did Anonymous get the UDIDs and more importantly will we ever find their source? It’s possible the UDIDs could have come from a developer that was either careless or knowingly gave them to Anonymous. However it’s unlikely a developer would have access to 12 million of them but we only know for sure Anonymous has 1 million. My guess is we will probably never find out where the leak came from but at least Apple is taking some precautions against the threat.

Apple has been reluctant in the past to approve Apps that use the UDID code to track devices but now they are taking even more precautions. The following statement explains how, “Additionally, with iOS 6 we introduced a new set of APIs meant to replace the use of the UDID code and will soon be banning the use of the UDID.”

Don’t Hate The Geek will be keeping a close eye as this story further develops and report back with any breaking details. Also be sure to check back this week when Apple holds their media event widely speculated to be the next iPhone announcement.

Related articles

• Apple denies giving FBI any iOS device UDIDs, raises questions over AntiSec claims
• Apple plots the end of the UDID, denies sharing them with the FBI