Apple is reportedly gearing up to stem the influx of counterfeit bitcoin wallets that are showing up in the App Store. According to a report, in the last week or so, more than 10 counterfeit bitcoin apps have made it into the App Store, with some of them designed to steal bitcoin from users that are worth thousands of dollars. Apple told Motherboard, according to the report, that all of the apps have since been removed from the App Store.
The apps were pretending to be legitimate bitcoin wallets, like BitGo, Breadwallet and Coinbase, even using some of the same source code to appear to look just like them. The Breadwallet clone ended up losing customers $20,000 or more, with half of it from one victim alone. It’s not clear how the apps made it past the screening at Apple. Bitcoin developers will, in some cases, make their source code public to boost transparency, but that makes it easier for hackers to spoof the apps, the report noted.
Hack attacks in the bitcoin market have become more commonplace in recent weeks. Last week, Bitfinex, a Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange was hacked, requiring the company to put a hold on all trading and deposits while it investigates the breach. The hack allegedly led to a $65 million theft of virtual currency. Bitcoin’s trading price dropped by around 20 percent that day.
Meanwhile, in June, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) was hacked, with the bad guy(s) able to steal $50 million in digital currency from the project that has otherwise been gaining some attention in the space because of its venture capital funding. Ether, which is a relatively newer digital currency on the market that runs on the Ethereum network, has been gaining some popularity up until this hack. Following the reports of the hack, Ether took a big hit.
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