About 2% of the 1,000 top grossing apps on the Apple App Store are scams, The Washington Post reports.
Market research firm Appfigures said that such apps have earned approximately $48 million while they were still in the app store, of which Apple also had a cut.
The Post's analysis also showed that "fleeceware apps" that leverage phony customer reviews to boost App Store rankings are even more prevalent. Apple has already removed two-thirds of the 18 fleeceware apps flagged by The Post.
Apple has long touted the security of its App Store due to its exclusive control on the app marketplace for iOS users, but experts said that such monopoly has allowed Apple to be complacent and provide a false sense of security.
"If consumers were to have access to alternative app stores or other methods of distributing software, Apple would be a lot more likely to take this problem more seriously," said Stan Miles, economics professor at Thompson Rivers University in Canada.
However, Apple spokesperson Fred Sainz said that the company will continue acting against harmful apps.
Security Architecture, Application security, Endpoint/Device Security, Endpoint/Device Security, Security Strategy, Plan, Budget, Threat Management, Endpoint/Device Security, Endpoint/Device Security, Endpoint/Device Security
Scam apps prevalent in Apple store
Jill AitoroJill Aitoro
Jill Aitoro is senior vice president of content strategy for CyberRisk Alliance. She has more than 20 years of experience editing and reporting on technology, business and policy. Prior to joining CRA, she worked at Sightline Media as editor of Defense News and executive editor of the Business-to-Government Group. She previously worked at Washington Business Journal and Nextgov, covering federal technology, contracting and policy, as well as CMP Media’s VARBusiness and CRN and Penton Media’s iSeries News.
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