On Sunday, Apple announced that they were cleaning up their iOS App Store by removing malicious iPhone and iPad programs. This is considered to be the first ever large-scale attack on the iOS platform.
Apple
Apparently, several cyber security firms found a malicious program by the name of "XcodeGhost" which was embedded in many legitimate apps.
The malicious apps were created using a counterfeit version of Apple's developer software Xcode, Apple said.
Christine Monaghan, a spokesperson for Apple, said in an email: "We've removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software."We are working with the developers to make sure they're using the proper version of Xcode to rebuild their apps."
Ryan Olson, the Director of Threat Intelligence at Palo Alto Networks, has said that his firm had uncovered no examples of data theft or other harm.
Chinese security firm Qihoo360 Technology Co said on its blog that it had uncovered 344 apps tainted with XcodeGhost.
Despite the negligible impact these illegitimate apps have had, this is still considered a substantial threat as the iOS App Store has never before encountered a threat of this size.
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