Malware attacks App Store, Apple pulls infected apps
Tech Industry
Apple is purging its App Store of tainted software.
I'm Bridget Carey.
This is your CNET Update.
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Many popular, trusted apps in Apple's App Store have been found to be infected with malware.
And Apple says it's pulling these problematic programs from the iPhone and iPad App Stores.
The infected apps were developed in China, and include WeChat.
It's a very popular messaging app in Asian-Pacific countries.
Also infected is the Chinese version of Angry Birds 2, as well as apps for baking, music streaming, a ridesharing service, stock trading, even one from a mobile carrier.
The malware heist inside of apps--spying on your personal details And can even send pop up alerts to trick you into giving up your password.
Some security experts think as many as 300 apps could have the malware, so how did it happen?
They were infected before they even got into the app store, in the coding process.
You see, when you build an iPhone app you can download developer software from Apple, it's called Xcode.
And for some that software can take a long time to download.
But there was another version of the software floating around on forums that promised to be a faster download for developers in China.
And that version of Xcode was altered and infected, and it tainted every app born from it.
In a statement, Apple said it is protecting consumers by removing apps created with the counterfeit software.
This was first discovered and reported by a security firm, Palo Alto Networks, and it's being called the first hack of its kind.
It's assumed that Apple's apps are safe, because Apple reviews the code before apps go into the store.
But Apple didn't catch this malicious code.
As Apple's popularity grows, hackers will target it more.
App makers are now reuploading fixed versions of their apps.
So if you have WeChat, delete the app and redownload the new version.
Speaking of Apple being a target for hackers, there's now a one million dollar bounty for anyone that can find a way to remotely break into an iPhone or iPad running the new iOS 9 software.
As first reported by Wired, a company called Zerodium is paying the bounty, and if there are multiple hacks discovered the firm will pay multiple rewards.
To get the reward, you can't report the bug to Apple.
They don't want it fixed.
The company profits off selling the secrets to other hackers or government agencies.
To use the hack against us, it's nasty.
Meanwhile amid all the drama around problem aps Apple released a software update to the Apple watch.
It is called watchOS2.
It was supposed to go live last week on Wednesday, but it was delayed due a bug found in the testing process.
The big feature in the update is that now apps can run directly on the watch and tap into data collected from the watch sensors.
And that makes watch apps more useful.
That's it for this tech news update but you can head to cnet.com for more details on the new watch OS 2.
From our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.
