Apple to ban iOS mining apps
At WWDC, Apple announced some changes to its developer guidelines. The announcement went almost unnoticed, without much fanfare. However, this week the Apple Insider news agency found new items in the Hardware Compatibility section. It states that any applications, including advertising banners displayed inside them, are not allowed to run background processes related to cryptocurrency mining. According to Martha Bennett, chief analyst at Forrester Research, Apple's decision makes sense: “Like desktop utilities that are designed for mining on a PC, their mobile counterparts load the processor of a mobile device and increase battery consumption. Ultimately, this leads to premature wear of the equipment. Apparently Apple wants to protect its customers from hidden miners distributed by hackers. Malicious miners for desktops and mobile phones are a relatively new problem, but their scale is growing rapidly. One of the main distributors of malware is the Coinhive cryptocurrency service. Coinhive uses a small JavaScript code that is embedded in web pages and banner ads. When visiting an infected site, the user's computer starts mining Monero. Hidden mining is called cryptojacking. Cryptojacking programs became the dominant ramsomware in North America in the first quarter of 2018, Trend Micro reports. "Cryptojacking is a hidden, passive alternative to extortion," said a Trend Micro spokeswoman. “Due to the nature of mining, criminals cannot get enough profit from several infected computers, so they try to distribute the code of Coinhive and the like as widely as possible. Stealth allows malware to stay on the devices of thousands of users for a long time and generate income for its creators. ” “You don't have to be technically advanced to understand that mining takes up all the resources of a device,” says Jack Gold, chief analyst at J. Gold Associates. “If such an application is installed by a third party in secret from the user, it's even worse. It's good that Apple is taking the initiative before the situation becomes a real problem. " On Android, Google has no plans to implement such a ban yet, but the company says it is updating its developer security policy every month. The Topic of Article: Apple to ban iOS mining apps. |
