Many cyber security firms found the malicious XcodeGhost program embedded in numerous authentic apps of iOS.

Anti-censorship group Greatfire.org, which tracks Chinese Internet restrictions, hacking and other online issues, said the attack appeared to originate in compromised versions of Xcode, Apple’s developer software, which were then used by Chinese programmers.

Palo Alto Networks published several posts analyzing the flaw on its blog post late last week, finding that 39 apps were affected in total, potentially affecting “hundreds of millions” of users, the company said.

Apple is busy today cleaning up apps from its App Store in China found to be infected with malware that can allow attackers to steal data about the users.

The list includes some of the most popular apps in China, like the ride-hailing app Didi Kuaidi.

“Developers are now a huge target”, he said. Since Safari plugins can’t block ads in third-party apps, it is again a win-win situation for Apple, encouraging sites to build apps from which it can collect a 30 percent cut of revenues.

We at Bidness Etc believe that while this is the first time that Apple has experienced something like this, the company needs to ramp up security protocols on the App Store to make sure apps do not go through without proper checks.

Experts recommend that those who already have the apps on their devices should uninstall them, or update to a version that has removed the malware.

Do you foresee the iPhone 7 being vulnerable to future malware attacks after Apple app store was attacked?

“To protect our customers, we’ve removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software”.

The super-sized 12in tablet, as well as partnerships with Cisco and IBM, highlight Apple’s shift into the corporate space, a move that chairman of TechMarketView Richard Holway said is a source of fear for the channel.

To me it seems interesting that most of these apps are mainly used in China and some of them rival big western apps.

In any case, it’s an embarrassing security breach for Apple, which normally talks up the height of the wall surrounding the App Store garden as one of the reasons to switch from scary scary Android. Qihoo360 Technology Co, a Chinese security firm, said it has uncovered 344 apps infected with the malware.