Apple users hit with dangerous malware

After years of being spared the countless malware attacks seen on Android, Apple users are being increasingly warned about threats to the iOS software. However, the latest malware is more advanced than previous versions because it doesn’t rely on the user downloading dodgy apps or jailbreaking their phone. Called ‘AceDeceiver’, the malware can install itself […]

After years of being spared the countless malware attacks seen on Android, Apple users are being increasingly warned about threats to the iOS software.
However, the latest malware is more advanced than previous versions because it doesn’t rely on the user downloading dodgy apps or jailbreaking their phone.
Called ‘AceDeceiver’, the malware can install itself on a phone by infecting the user’s computer first.
The malware was uncovered by security company Palo Alto Networks.
It can attack iPhones that have not been ‘jailbroken’, but at the moment the malware has only been found in China.
The attackers created Windows software called ‘Aisi Helper’ for the PC, which purported to be software that provides services for iOS devices such as system re-installation, jailbreaking, system backup, device management and system cleaning.
But what it was also doing was surreptitiously installing the malicious apps on any iOS device that is connected to the PC on which Aisi Helper is installed.
“In its present form, you’d have to be dumb enough to install a Chinese pirate app store in order to have to worry about this,” said Jonathan ŹDziarski, author of a book on hacking iOS devices and how to prevent it, on his blog.
“But in a more malicious form, something like it could potentially be embedded as a trojan in legitimate software.”