Thuat Nguyen's iBooks fraud raises iTunes security issues
Hopefully Vietnamese developer Thuat Nguyen is now regretting the tactic of pushing his apps up Apple's books chart by hacking iTunes accounts to generate sales.
The kind of strategy you'd think a developer wouldn't want to draw attention to, by artificially placing 41 of his apps in the top 50, Nguyen highlighted the surprisingly robust performance of his apps.
A question of scale
Apple has since revealed his fraudulent activities affected around 400 iTunes accounts of the 150 million on record hardly the widescale hack it was initially portrayed as being.
Nevertheless, it's been suggested Nguyen didn't pluck his spurious stratagem out of thin air.
As reported by TheNextWeb.com, app farms such as Nguyen's where iTunes accounts are hacked to induce false sales that propel apps up their respective charts and, in turn, lead to legal sales - may be more common than initially thought, with iTunes users reporting anywhere between $100 and $1,400 being fraudulantly spent using their accounts.
Security matters
Apple, of course, rejects such talk, suggesting the kind of activities Nguyen indulged in are a rarity and, in fact, can be easily prevented by users taking a few simple steps to ensure the security of their accounts isn't compromised.
"The developer Thuat Nguyen and his apps were removed from the App Store for violating the developer Program License Agreement, including fraudulent purchase patterns," Apple said in a statement to Engadget.
"Developers do not receive any iTunes confidential customer data when an app is downloaded.
Eyes on the App Store
"If your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes we recommend that you contact your financial institution and inquire about canceling the card and issuing a chargeback for any unauthorised transactions," Apple's statement continues.
"We also recommend that you change your iTunes account password immediately."
Nonetheless, a list of other possible culprits published by TheNextWeb.com, though highly speculative in nature, suggests Apple's marketplace is now in sharp focus, if not in terms of its own security than in terms of its use as a sales channel for stolen creditcard data.