PCWorld reported this weekend that the world’s largest app stores have been infiltrated once again.
According to the report, cybercriminals are using third-party app sites to sell “reverse-engineered versions” of some of the top paid apps on the Google Play and Apple App Stores.
“Looking at a total of 230 apps—the top 100 paid apps and top 15 free apps for Android and iOS—Arxan found that 100 percent of the top paid apps on Android and 56 percent on iOS were being impersonated in a compromised form on grey markets,” the report reads.
Arxan, a software firm, says the counterfeit apps are primarily being downloaded to smartphones outside of the United States.
”The widespread use of ‘cracked’ apps represents a real and present danger given the explosion of smartphone and tablet use in the workplace and home,” explains Arxan CTO, Kevin Morgan.
”Not only is IP theft costing software stakeholders millions of dollars every year,” Morgan concludes, “but unprotected apps are vulnerable to tampering: either through installed malware or through decompiling and reverse engineering—enabling hackers to analyze code and target core security or business logic that is protecting or enabling access to sensitive corporate data.”
