Hackers claim small breach on Apple site

A group of hackers who have attacked a number of Web sites in recent months said Sunday that they had stolen a small amount of internal passwords and usernames from an Apple server, the New York Times reported.

The alleged information was taken from a server used by Apple for online surveys and did not belong to the public or Apple customers. The data was posted publicly on pastebin, a file-sharing Web site.

Anonymous, the group claiming responsibility for the attack, is believed to be working closely with hackers who were involved in Lulz Security, a hacker group that disbanded last week after attacking a number of sites over the past two months, including PBS.org, the United States Senate, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Web site of a company associated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The latest breach, which only contains 27 internal Apple usernames and passwords, is a relatively small amount of data compared to attacks on other companies, but it underlies the potential for other attacks by Anonymous.