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The Apple App Store Incident: Trouble in Paradise?
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RetiredUser
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RetiredUser,
 User Rank: Ninja
1/24/2016 | 2:40:08 AM
Re: Bound to happen
For me, one takeaway here is that Apple needs to look to more external resources to aid in detection of malicious programs that get past the initial assessment.  Unless they plan to beef up their org with a large InfoSec team, as with most surprise hacks and hackables out there, things like this are going to continue to be identified by non-Apple staff.  Bounties are a great way to encourage folks to explore and uncover app store issues, but there can be complications here for people who aren't under direct contract with Apple who need to bend the rules to do the work.  

Ultimately, Apple simply needs to innovate and do more toward developing new ways of protecting customer through automated app code scanning and detection of "unusual" content in apps at both the code and binary level.  If folks complain the current process for developing and releasing through Apple iTunes and so forth is already complicated, will that deter Apple from beefing up security in this area?  Hopefully not.  After all, to innovate in the app store platform arena could mean great exposure from both a customer service and technology perspective.   
Joe Stanganelli
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Joe Stanganelli,
 User Rank: Ninja
1/22/2016 | 11:07:22 PM
Walled garden and antivirus
The iOS platform is still far less attacked, in general, than Android platforms.  Apple's walled garden does have a strong effect in keeping bad guys out, but it can't keep *all* the bad guys out -- which is why there needs to be increased awareness and advocacy for downloading and installing trusted anti-malware apps.

Come to think of it, our computers often come with anti-malware software pre-installed.  Why not our smartphones?
RyanSepe
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RyanSepe,
 User Rank: Ninja
1/22/2016 | 1:04:37 PM
Bound to happen
No matter how secure you think you are, this will eventually happen. Apple was quick to respond which is definitely a monumental benefit.

What takeaways would you provide to Apple citing this case for a future occurence. Either from a prevention or mitigation standpoint.


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