Apple: Two Cores Inside One Juicy Delight
April 12, 2021
I am not sure whom to believe. Tim Apple, the spokesperson for security and privacy, or a “senior Apple engineer named Eric Friedman. Mr. Friedman has insight into Apple’s actual app review process. The orange newspaper’s story “Apple Engineer Likened App Store Security to Butter Knife in a Gunfight” stated:
Apple’s process of reviewing new apps for the App Store to “more like the pretty lady who greets you . . . at the Hawaiian airport than the drug-sniffing dog”. He added that Apple was ill-equipped to “deflect sophisticated attackers”.
The real world approach is different from the super diligent method cultivated in the apple orchard.
The issue is important because some people like little old me have purchased super duper Apple app store apps. A go round with video recording apps produced mostly failure. Did I care? A little. Did Apple care? Ho ho ho.
But the game outfit Epic (maker of Fortnite) does care and apparently has the cash to take the nemesis of Facebook and Intel to court. I circled in apple red marker this statement in the write up:
Apple acknowledged various forms of malware on the App Store, but cited data from 2018 showing that the iPhone platform “accounted for just 0.85% of malware infections,” whereas Android accounted for 47.2 per cent of infections and Windows and PC accounted for 35.8 per cent.
That’s outstanding. Why are any malware centric apps in the Apple app store? Microsoft points to 1,000 engineers working tirelessly to keep the Azure crowd on its toes. Microsoft unfortunately is not able to make its product secure. Neither is Google. And, it seems, Apple drops the basket of Belle de Boskoops in the space ship’s Fraud Engineering Algorithms and Risk (Fear) office too.
I am not sure if these comments in the write up are Johnny Appleseed approved or faux Crimson Delights:
According to Epic, the chief of meditation app Headspace referred to “egregious theft” on the App Store, with copycat apps repeatedly springing up after allegedly stealing its intellectual property. “Shockingly, Apple [is] approving these apps, and when the users buy the apps they are left with nothing but some scammy chat rooms in the background,” he wrote to Apple, according to Epic.
Interesting. One big Apple with two different cores. Which is the real one? Worth watching.
Stephen E Arnold, April 12, 2021
PS. Here in Kentucky, the catchphrase phrase is “don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.” But plastic butter knife? No. No. No. Pack the correct equipment shown in the table below:
Crocodile Dundee knife possibly based on a Kentucky model used by Davy Crockett down yonder from Harrod’s Creek | ![]() |
Plastic butter knife with silver Mylar wrap | ![]() |
Kentucky weapon for a real gun fight | ![]() |
Observation: Knives won’t work when one confronts a Fort Knox tank.