The Epic vs. Apple trial is taking us down memory lane, as it has revealed emails that reveal the true extent of the biggest iPhone hack ever. In case it slipped people’s minds, in 2015, hackers infiltrated thousands of iPhone and iPad apps with the potentially dangerous ‘XCodeGhost’ malware.
During that time, Apple had access to the attack’s details. In addition, the company stated that hundreds of millions of people had been notified. Approximately 4,000 apps are also thought to be infected, according to the researchers.
BERLIN, GERMANY – MARCH 25: During debates in the Bundestag prior to the likely passage of a massive federal financial aid package to shore Germany up against the effects of the coronavirus on March 25, 2020, in Berlin, Germany, a member of the Bundestag wears protective gloves while using an iPhone. The package, worth more than EUR 150 billion, is expected to be approved by the Bundestag later today.
In terms of the number of people affected, this is the largest hack of iPhones and iPads ever. And we’re only now learning about it. Thanks to the ‘Fornite’ Trial for releasing the emails of an Apple executive.
The emails also revealed that there are 128 million duped iPhone users worldwide, with 18 million of them from the United States.
In an email at the time, Dale Bagwell, Apple’s manager of iTunes customer experience, wrote: “In total, 128M customers have downloaded the 2500+ apps that were affected LTD.”
It’s worth noting that the specific numbers of the malware-infected apps were not revealed in the emails. We’re forced to accept Bagwell’s estimate of 2500+. In Apple’s App Store, these apps have been downloaded a total of 203 million times.
Apple employees are also struggling to notify the malware victims, according to an email.
Apple’s vice president of the App Store at the time, Matt Fisher, wrote: “Due to the large number of customers potentially affected, do we want to send an email to all of them?”
According to Fisher, “Just want to set expectations correctly here. We have a mass-request tool that will allow us to send the emails, however, we are still testing to make sure that we can accurately include the names of the apps for each customer,” “There have been issues with this specific functionality in the past.”
Furthermore, the email revealed that China accounts for 55 percent of the affected users. Furthermore, the Asian country accounts for 66% of all downloads.
