Time ago Apple he is promoting his App Store as a secure platform, almost indispensable for the safety of users iPhone. In reality, what happened in the last few hours demonstrates how the service is potentially vulnerable.
The manufacturer of the password manager LastPass, in fact, has reported the presence of what is defined bluntly as a fraudulent app that imitates its original software. Apple promptly intervened by removing the app which, on the store, actually appeared with a almost identical logo to that of the original program.
The app in question, produced by a certain Parvati Patelalthough identical in name and similar in logo to the famous password manager, had different spelling errors and therefore, for the most attentive users, it was still possible to easily circumvent the “trap”. This, published on January 21st, had in fact already been bombarded by negative reviews which signaled the unclear nature.
On a practical level, at the moment, it is not known whether the fake app was really harmful or was simply exploiting a well-known name to gain popularity and downloads.
The fraudulent app identified on the App Store raises many doubts about the platform
Phil Schillerhead of the App Store, recently stated how the introduction of third-party stores could bring new risks for users.
This “forced opening” by Apple is a consequence of the European directives of Digital Markets Act (DMA), a series of regulations that regulate the presence on the market of technological giants.
Despite this, what happened with the fraudulent app that “imitated” LastPass also leaves shadows on the official store of the Cupertino company. LastPass Senior Analyst, Mike Kosakreleased a statement regarding what happened, saying “We are bringing this issue to the attention of our customers to avoid potential confusion and/or loss of personal data“.
LastPass told the site TechCrunch to be in close contact with Apple representatives to understand how the app survived theApp Review.