By virtue of their exclusivity agreement for iPhones and 3G iPads, and with chains only being as strong as their weakest links, AT&T's security breaches are Apple's security breaches.

The breach is not Apple's *fault*, but Apple chose to do business with AT&T, and they must accept part of the reputation damage that comes with an incident like this. A similar dynamic exists with the alliance of BP and TransOcean, who operated the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. I did not find BP's attempts to distance themselves from TransOcean convincing, nor do I find any attempts to distance Apple and AT&T convincing.

In short, he who lies down with dogs will rise with fleas.