Chinese ad company apologizes for snooping on iOS users

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Just don't call it a security breach. Apparently.
Photo: PhotoAtelier/Flickr

The Chinese mobile ad company responsible for malicious code discovered in 256 iOS apps has come forward and apologized after being named and shamed by Apple.

“We’ve identified a group of apps that are using a third-party advertising SDK, developed by Youmi, a mobile advertising provider, that uses private APIs to gather private information, such as user email addresses and device identifiers, and route data to its company server,” Apple said in a statement yesterday.

Apple took the steps of banning all affected apps from the App Store on the grounds that they were illegally accessing users’ personal information — including email addresses, device ID, and other personal identifying data.

In a statement, Guangzhou Youmi Mobile Technology Co. offered its “sincere apologies,” and said that it is working with Apple to resolve the problem

Although the data breach was only revealed on Sunday, it appears that Youmi’s developers first started using the technique for extracting user data two years ago.

“Given how simple this obfuscation is and how long the apps have been available that have it, we’re concerned other published apps may be using different but related approaches to hide their malicious behavior,” said security researchers SourceDNA after discovering the flaw.

Youmi doesn’t seem too sorry, however, since its statement blames “one-sided media” reports for calling it a security breach, rather than (as Youmi would prefer it) a way for advertisers and developers to protect themselves against fraud. By, you know, breaching security protocols.

Youmi ran into problems yesterday after its website was taken down by a malicious hack. If that’s not too “one-sided” a description for what happened.

Source: WSJ

 

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