Apple has owned up to a rare incursion of malicious software into its App Store, forcing it to pull some of the most widely used mobile apps in China from the service.
Late on Sunday in California, the iPhone and iPad maker confirmed reports by security researchers who had warned that a swathe of popular Chinese apps had been created using developer tools that were infected with the malware, resulting in the compromised apps.
“Hundreds of millions” of users of the popular Chinese apps were at risk of having their personal data exposed, including people who use Tencent’s WeChat mobile messaging service and ride-hailing app Didi Kuaidi, according to Palo Alto Networks, a US cyber security company.