California: Palo Alto Networks has discovered a new form of malware that may have affected hundreds of thousands of Apple mobile device users, largely in China.
The cybersecurity provider has named the malware “WireLurker”, and said that it monitors devices connected by a USB cable to an infected computer and installs malicious applications onto the device. The malware steals a variety of information from mobile devices, but the goal of its creator isn’t clear yet. Palo Alto Networks said that while the malware allows an attacker to collect “significant amounts of information from a large number of Chinese iOS and Mac OS systems,” none of it points to a particular motive.
The malware is “unlike anything we’ve ever seen” in terms of malware targeting Apple’s iOS and OS X systems, said Ryan Olson, a Palo Alto Networks intelligence director.
“The techniques in use suggest that bad actors are getting more sophisticated when it comes to exploiting some of the world’s best-known desktop and mobile platforms,” Olson said.
According to the researchers, WireLurker malware first infects a Mac computer, which uses the OS X operating system, and then installs itself on iOS devices iPads or iPhones when they are connected to the computers via USB ports.
The malware was traced back to a third-party Chinese app store which had 467 infected applications.
