From The Verge: Pirates have been abusing Apple’s enterprise developer program to distribute hacked versions of popular apps, reports Reuters. Versions of Spotify, Pokémon Go, Minecraft, and Angry Birds were discovered, which had been modified to block in-app advertisements and to make paid features available for free, depriving their original developers — as well as Apple itself — of revenue.
Although Apple banned several of these apps after first being told about them by Reuters, the publication reports that they were back up under different certificates “within days.” The discovery suggests that Apple is struggling to control access to its enterprise certificates, which developers can use to circumvent Apple’s strict App Store rules by saying that an app is intended for use by their employees only.
Among the pirated apps was a version of Spotify which had been modified to block the advertisements that play when you’re listening with a free subscription. Also available was a free version of Minecraft, which normally retails for $6.99 on the App Store.
Responding to the Reuters’ report, a spokesperson from Apple said, “Developers that abuse our enterprise certificates are in violation of the Apple Developer Enterprise Program Agreement and will have their certificates terminated, and if appropriate, they will be removed from our Developer Program completely.” The company has also confirmed that it would be requiring developers to add two-factor authentication to their accounts by the end of the month.
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