Apple’s App Store may not be as safe as you thought

Over the years, Apple has prided themselves on the safety and security of their devices whether it is a laptop, computer or smartphone.

Despite us knowing that Apple devices aren’t completely fool proof, very few would have even considered what we download within the App Store may harm our devices. Until now.

Apple’s App Store may not be as safe as we once believed after the discovery of malicious code found within apps earlier this week forced Apple to remove several apps from the App Store, all of which were commonly used on iOS devices in China.

This is thought to be the first major attack on the Apple App Store.

So how did this happen?

Supposedly, attackers managed to fool the developers into using a fake version of the software which was used to create iOS apps. This resulted in apps that were being created by this software to allow the attackers to collect user data and send it to their own server.

Palo Alto, a security company were the first to make Apple aware of this malware hidden within the apps.

The malware, named XcodeGhost could also send fake alerts tricking users into giving up personal information.

If you save any important data such as passwords into your phone then you may want to rethink that too, as the malware could be used to read clipboards on the devices, giving them the potential to access logins.

The Chinese apps that were affected were the car hailing app Didi Kuaidi, NetEase a music downloading app, Tencent’s WeChat app and a business card scanner called CamCard, all of which have now been removed from the App Store by Apple.  

Of course, this breach of the App Store isn’t likely to have affected many of you, unless you use Chinese Apps.

But it is still a good reminder to avoid saving any really valuable information on your mobile device and although the iPhone may still be safer than most mobile devices and the App Store may be less susceptible to malware-ridden apps than Google’s Play Store, it isn’t impenetrable so you need to be careful with the information you store on your smartphone.