AT&T Inc. acknowledged Wednesday that a security hole had exposed its iPad customers’ email addresses, a breach that highlights how corporations still have problems protecting private information.

A small group of computer experts that calls itself Goatse Security claimed responsibility for the breach, saying they exploited an opening in AT&T’s website to find numbers that identify iPad users of AT&T’s mobile network.

Those numbers in turn allowed the group to uncover the email addresses of thousands of users, including prominent officials in companies, politics and the military, Goatse said. Gawker Media LLC, which reported the breach earlier Wednesday, said 114,000 email addresses were revealed.

AT&T, the sole U.S. provider of wireless service for the popular Apple Inc. tablets, said it had fixed the security problem by Tuesday. The company also said it would inform all the customers whose email addresses and iPad IDs may have been obtained.

“At this point, there is no evidence that any other customer information was shared,” AT&T said. “We take customer privacy very seriously, and while we have fixed this problem, we apologize to our customers who were impacted.”

(Source: Wall Street Journal)