Do you think that the Apple App Store includes means of protection from malicious attacks? A veteran engineer at Apple has likened its app store's defenses to malicious attacks, such as bringing a knife in a gun battle, and let's find out what happens between the Fortnite developer and the iPhone maker.


What's the story

Everyone is aware of the battle that took place between Apple and Epic because of the last game Fortnite, which was deleted after it added a payment system away from the Apple Store and this is what the company rejects because it believes that this could undermine the security of the iPhone and also prevent it from obtaining the percentage it imposes on any In-store purchase.

In order to win over Apple, IPIC is looking for any loopholes and even internal confessions of Apple employees in order to trap the company and win it in the court battle, so the Fortnite developers cited internal Apple documents and were citing Eric Friedman, head of the company's fraud and risk engineering algorithms unit, who likened Apple's process to review The new applications in its store are like the beautiful lady who welcomes you at the Hawaiian airport with flowers instead of having a trained dog to identify contraband, and added that Apple was not well equipped to repel the attacks of seasoned hackers.

This recognition may be a big blow to Apple's defense, which depends on the company's determination to collect the 30% it imposes on purchases within its app store in order to finance the store's immunization and protect users from malware.

IPIC did not stop, but, as our Syrian brothers say, “It knocks the iron and is my protector”. IPIC launched a scathing attack on Apple’s promise of the safety of the App Store, indicating that there are many fraudulent applications that were previously included in the App Store, including fake blood pressure detection tools and operations. Fraudulent that occurred in the store and users were misled into buying fake products and clear thefts, such as the second version of the Minecraft game, which everyone thought was a continuation of the famous official game, but it was fake and was bought by a lot for $ 7, and even became one of the five paid games most downloaded in the store.


Apple responded

In its legal documents, Apple defended its store, arguing that Epic was unfairly lobbying to avoid store fees, even though Fortnite earned $ 700 million from its platform in the two years before it was fired.

Apple acknowledged the presence of various forms of malware on its app store, but it cited data from 2018, where the iPhone represented 0.85% of the devices that were infected with malware, while the percentage in Android devices reached 47.2% and Windows devices it was 35.8%.

Apple confirmed that its system is significantly safer than Android and that there is a strong manual review that is carried out by nearly 500 employees working to protect its users. However, IPIC has used many examples from developers who have expressed their dissatisfaction with the level of quality control in the Apple Store, such as the developers of the meditation application And relax Headspace, which indicated a massive theft on the App Store because of the emergence of fake applications repeatedly and theft of intellectual property, and unfortunately Apple agrees to those applications and when users buy them they find nothing.


Point of view

In the end, Apple's argument for maintaining uniqueness in distributing software on the platform is regulation and security, I do not dispute the hypothesis, even if its implementation is not the most effective, however, only a naive person thinks that this is the whole story, Apple has a proven track record From arbitrarily rejecting applications, launching alternatives and blocking existing alternatives, or promoting their applications to others, in addition to imposing the use of the private payment process within in-app purchases, it seems like an abuse of power.

How about you, do you think it's about user protection or 30%, let us know in the comments

Source:

Financial Times

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