FBI denies Anonymous' claims of hacking agency laptop to obtain iDevice UDIDs

The FBI has cried foul over a claim by hacker group Anonymous that it stole 12 million iPad and iPhone UDIDs from an FBI laptop. According to the FBI, not did the hack never happen, the organization never had the UDIDs in its possession in the first place.

In a tweet issued less than an hour before this writing, the FBI said:

"Statement soon on reports that one of our laptops with personal info was hacked. We never had info in question. Bottom Line: TOTALLY FALSE"

In a statement to AllThingsD, the FBI added,

"The FBI is aware of published reports alleging that an FBI laptop was compromised and private data regarding Apple UDIDs was exposed. At this time there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data. "

Anonymous said it released the data, part of its Antisec campaign done in concert with LulzSec, because it wanted to publicize the fact that the FBI had collected and was in possession of such data.

Of course, the question of why the FBI would want such data was unanswered by Anonymous. That was the one which was sure to trigger a Congressional investigation.

Now, though, with the FBI's denial, the question is, where did Anonymous get the data? At least some of the UDIDs in the database have been confirmed to be real, so there's no doubt there is real information in there. Where it actually came from remains an open question.

Those who wish to check to see if their UDID is among the 1,000,001 UDIDs that Anonymous released out of the more than 12 million total that it says it has in its possession can run it through this tool.