“Three people have been arrested in China on suspicion of spreading malware that targeted Apple’s operating system, Chinese officials have announced,” BBC News reports. “The Beijing Bureau of public security announced the arrest of suspects charged with spreading the WireLurker malware.”
“It mainly infected devices in China,” The Beeb reports. “The suspects – named only as Chen, Lee and Wang – were arrested in the Beijing area, according to the statement posted on Chinese social network Sina Weibo. The Chinese authorities also shut down the site that had been spreading the malware.”
“The malware was installed via software downloaded to Mac desktops from the Maiyadi app store. It was then able to attack iOS devices connected to an infected Mac via a USB cable,” The Beeb reports. “Apple took steps to block the infected apps and reminded users not to install software from third-party app stores. A Windows version of the malware was also found.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
How to detect and remove WireLurker from OS X and iOS – November 6, 2014
Apple blocks Chinese trojan apps – November 6, 2014
Apple blocks apps after WireLurker malware on iOS and Mac OS X uncovered in China – November 6, 2014
WireLurker trojan targeted at non-jailbroken iPhones spreads in China – November 6, 2014
There’s practically no iOS malware, thanks to Apple’s smart control over app distribution – June 13, 2014
F-Secure: Android accounted for 99% of new mobile malware in Q1 2014 – April 30, 2014
Google’s Sundar Pichai: Android not designed to be safe; if I wrote malware, I’d target Android, too – February 27, 2014
Cisco: Android the target of 99 percent of world’s mobile malware – January 17, 2014
U.S. DHS, FBI warn of malware threats to Android mobile devices – August 27, 2013
Android app malware rates skyrocket 40 percent in last quarter – August 7, 2013
First malware found in wild that exploits Android app signing flaw – July 25, 2013
Mobile Threats Report: Android accounts for 92% of all mobile malware – June 26, 2013
Latest self-replicating Android Trojan looks and acts just like Windows malware – June 7, 2013
99.9% of new mobile malware targets Android phones – May 30, 2013
Wait—the last sentence of the story—almost an afterthought—”A Windows version of the malware was also found”—why hasn’t that been trumpeted, like the Apple exploit was?
Probably because yet another Windows malware, heaved on top of the existing heap of over 140,000 different Windows malware (last I checked), is hardly news.
Any Mac/iOS malware, even that which requires users to stupidly install software from a questionable source, is news.
It’s sort of like hearing about a shooting in Baghdad…or Detroit. Happens all the time, so hardly big news. (No less tragic, BTW).
That’s possibly due to an earlier sentence.
“The bug was one of the first pieces of malware to penetrate iPhone’s strict software controls.”
When it comes to over all trumpeting about security believe me Microsoft gets the lion share of reporting.
…arrested and “offered” a career in military tech ops.
…as targets.
They will be brought under the auspices of Chinese cyber-operations for sure.
““The suspects – named only as Chen, Lee and Wang – were arrested in the Beijing area,”
This has to be some kind of joke.
That narrows it down to about 750 million Chinese…
Larry, Moe and Curly?? jajaja…
“You’re fscking nicked, me old beauty!: — Roman centurion, Life of Brian.
=:~)
“He’s a very naughty boy”
Yup, arrest now and work for the government later to circumvent Apple products.