Will The Major Malware Attack On The App Store Weigh Down Apple Stock?

App store comes under first major malware attack article image

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Apple had a fairly positive week following the launch of the latest iPhone models.

The good news included strong pre-orders for the iPhone 6S and also upgrade of the stock by various investment firms.

However, the new week started on a wrong foot with a first major large scale attack on the App store.

The latest news raises the question whether or not the App Store attack will weigh down on Apple stock Price?

A week of largely positive news surrounding the Apple stock, including soaring iPhone 6S sales and announcement of the iPhone upgrade program, was followed by some sour news as Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL)AAPLApple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) app store came under its first major malware attack. As reported on the BBC, the attack was facilitated by the creation of a counterfeit version of iOS, developed by hackers, which was then pushed to app developers for use.

The attack was the first large scale attack on the app store, which was made possible by hackers embedding a malicious code in various apps by persuading developers to use the counterfeit version of iOS. So what exactly was the impact of the attack?

An obvious question would be the number of users exposed to the attack? In January 2015, Apple made a huge announcement; the milestone of selling its 1 billionth iOS devices had been reached. Philip Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple Inc., celebrated the milestone on Twitter.

With no clear count on the total number of current iOS users, it would be safe to assume that they definitely total in the hundreds of millions, who were probably exposed to the attack.

However, as reported on Reuters, the attack had led to no data theft, which is probably the only silver lining here. The malware was found in over 344 apps, as reported by Qihoo 360 on their blog, including apps like the hugely popular Chinese chat app ‘WeChat’. WeChat cleared the air, stating that the malware impacted the older version, WeChat 6.2.5, and the issue has been addressed and fixed in the latest 6.2.6 version.