Security News More Apps from the Mac App Store Found to Steal User Data

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Apr 21, 2016
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After the Adware Doctor Mac App Store security fiasco and the report confirming that dozens if not hundreds of iOS apps sold location data to third parties unbeknownst to their users, Apple is again under fire regarding its App Stores' review rules and approval mechanisms.

According to evidence gathered by the Malware Bytes Labs and a few other security researchers and hobbyists, Dr. Antivirus, Dr. Cleaner, Dr. Unarchiver, Open Any Files, and possibly more, are other macOS apps accepted by Apple into their Mac App Store which surreptitiously collect and send large amounts of sensitive data to servers such as browsing history and

The four apps are now removed from the Mac App Store, after multiple reports to Apple during the last two days. They were all available within the store for the entirety of this year and had thousands of ratings (fake or real) with the number of installs being almost as high.

Malware Bytes Labs says in their report that all apps mentioned above have been observed to collect and exfiltrate the full browsing history for Safari, Firefox, and Google Chrome, as well as a complete list of all the apps, installed and downloaded on the user's Mac.

The most important issue at this time, besides Apple's security blunder, is if the Dr. Antivirus, Dr. Unarchiver, and Dr. Cleaner macOS apps have been developed and published by the reputable Trend Micro Incorporated security company given the fact that the two apps have been using their name as the developer.

Read more: More Apps from the Mac App Store Found to Steal User Data
 
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Apple should charge an app publisher a fee for submittal, registration, ongoing review and security approval of every app. And users should pay the costs for that process.

Google should do the same.

People want security, but they aren't willing to pay for it. Well, if you don't pay for it, you aren't going to get what you want. They're not going to provide high-level security review for free.

The free option is to just completely get rid of all 3rd-party apps. Period. Problems solved.
 
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