WireLurker: The first serious virus to threaten all Apple products

Apple devices are coming under attack from malware known as WireLurker - which collects call logs, phone book contacts and other sensitive information. Researchers at Palo Alto Networks say more than 450 Mac OS X applications offered on a Chinese third-party application store called Maiyadi have been seeded with WireLurker. The apps affected include Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, The Sims 3 and International Snooker 2012. The affected apps have been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times over the last six months, the firm said, and hundreds of thousands of users may have been affected.

We are aware of malicious software available from a download site aimed at users in China, and we’ve blocked the identified apps to prevent them from launching.

Ryan Olson, Palo Alto’s Networks intelligence officer

The Networks’ intelligence director Ryan Olson said the malware appears to be an “information gathering operation”. Once an iOS device was connected to an infected Mac using a USB cable, the WireLurker malware would check for security vulnerabilities and attempt to install itself on the phone or iPad. Palo Alto has contacted Apple to make it aware of the vulnerability. Apple said in a statement: “As always, we recommend that users download and install software from trusted sources.” Last month Apple’s iCloud storage service in China was attacked by hackers who tried to steal user information. The Chinese government denied claims it was behind the attack.

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