iPhone 4 Sells-Out In US & UK; AT&T Security Breach Exposes Subscriber Details
We've got to say, Apple's launch of the iPhone 4 wasn't exactly the slick, user-friendly experience we've come to expect from the Cupertino company. As we reported yesterday, Apple's US online store is apparently out of its first batch of iPhone 4 handsets, now showing the smartphone shipping by July 2nd rather than June 24th as before; the UK store has since caught up, with Apple's supply of unlocked, SIM-free iPhone 4 handsets also showing a July 2nd ship date. That's despite consistent problems with accessing the two stores throughout the day. More worrying, however, is talk that overwhelmed AT&T systems caused a serious security breach, with subscribers wishing to upgrade to the iPhone 4 being shown personal information for other customers.
Gizmodo has heard from multiple subscribers that, on entering their AT&T username and password for the online portal, they are being taken to the account pages of other users instead and seeing addresses, phone numbers and other personal details. Refreshing the page – or logging out and then back in again – sometimes restored the user's own account details, or sometimes showed another subscriber altogether.
According to one source, the issue could well have been precipitated by a new fraud update AT&T rolled out through their systems over the weekend, and that seems to have gone wrong:
"I do know that there was absolutely NO TESTING of this system done before the launch of the new iPhone. I know it's just heresay at this point, but I can confirm that there was a major outage over the weekend that impacted all ordering systems and programs, and I can confirm that there were multiple systems being upgraded/updated, with some updates being related to fraud."
AT&T's system – both online and in-store – has been up and down, and the carrier themselves told Gizmodo that they "have been unable to replicate the issue, but the information displayed did not include call-detail records, social security numbers, or credit card information."
iPhone 4 hands-on:
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