With the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) having initiated an investigation into the Apple iPad’s security breach - whereby a group called Goatse Security exploited a security hole on the AT&T website to compromise the email addresses of 114,000 iPad 3G users -, AT&T has extended an official apology for the security error.

Notifying the iPad 3G users of the data breach on Sunday, Dorothy Attwood, a Senior VP and chief privacy officer at the carrier, blamed Goatse Security of first discovering the flaw on the AT&T website.

Attwood said that “unauthorized computer ‘hackers’ maliciously exploited a function designed to make your iPad log-in process faster.”

Attwood also acknowledged that the iPad security breach, which was publicized last week, basically exposed the e-mail addresses and private identification numbers – called an ICC-ID – of the affected iPad 3G owners.

While the Goatse Security members justified their action saying that it was largely meant to protect the public, Attwood accused the “self-described hackers” of “deliberately” making great efforts “with a random program to extract possible ICC-IDs and capture customer email addresses “of the iPad 3G users.

In addition, Attwood also said that the hackers’ group had clearly put together a list of the hacked email addresses; and distributed the list for the sake of its own publicity.