Apple says that it has been cleaning up its app store, after a large scale attack on its mobile software outlet in China. So far no incident of data theft has been reported, but the potential risks remain unknown.
China's Apple App store, eaten from within. The security breach is the first of its kind.
"The malicious program has an interface. We believe that it can control host machines and pop-up ads," Cai Jingjing, National Vulnerability Database of Info. Security, said.
The cause? Developers copying and modifying versions of Apple's tool kit as downloading the official version takes a long time in China.
The result is uNPRecedented, hundreds of popular apps infected with the malicious code in just a week.
"Apple didn't make an in-depth review when the infected apps were put into the store," Xiang Changquan with Apple IOS Lab,said.
Experts say the attack took a lot of planning.
"We've found many online posts with different IDs, which offered download addresses. This continued on until a week ago. The hacker's server was paralyzed as more and more users were attacked," Mobile phone security expert Lin Wei said.
The suspected hacker wrote an online statement, acknowledging that one of the purposes was to embed ads.
"Clicking just one ad can produce around 2 yuan in revenue. If there are a million people using one app, we can tell just how big the illegal industry is," Cai said.
App makers have been checking to see whether their products have been infected. Haste makes waste, experts say. Next time, best to go with the longer but safer option, and just download the official version.