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Apple's iOS platform has long been the most secured ecosystem compared to Google's Android. But, lately, cyber criminals seem to have honed the technique to breach the former's high-walled garden.

Wandera's Threat Research team has reportedly detected more than a dozen (14 to be precise) benevolent-looking retro iOS games on Apple App Store, which have links to Command & Control (C&C) server. This very server was utilised by a notorious Golduck malware detected in Android apps on Google Play store last year.

A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in downtown Shanghai September 10, 2013.
[Representational Image] Several apps with links to server, which previously hosted Golduck malware detected on Apple App Store. In Picture: A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in downtown ShanghaiREUTERS

It's surprising how this fact got overlooked by the Apple App Store security screening, but timely detection by the Wandera team, the Cupertino-based company has removed all the tainted apps with immediate effect.

Though there are no reports of wrongdoing by the apps, this issue cannot be taken lightly. Devious app developers usually present their app with squeaky clean code to the company to win their trust and later infiltrate malicious codes in the app to steal consumers' financial data or cheat their ad agency with fake install impressions for quick bucks.

Last week, an organised cybercrime syndicate spoofed consumers with fake Apple logo to syphon money as fees for non-existent issue in the mobile.

It's a wake call for not just Apple, but also Google to scale up their security measures to thwart future malware attacks on smartphones, which has become the ubiquitous object of convenience in the digital era we live right now.

List of iOS apps connected with Golduck Malware-linked server:

Commando Metal: Classic Contra, Super Pentron Adventure: Super Hard, Classic Tank vs Super Bomber, Super Adventure of Maritron, Roy Adventure Troll Game, Trap Dungeons: Super Adventure, Bounce Classic Legend, Block Game, Classic Bomber: Super Legend, Brain It On: Stickman Physics, Bomber Game: Classic Bomberman, Classic Brick – Retro Block, The Climber Brick, and Chicken Shoot Galaxy Invaders.

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