Alipay, the operator of one of China’s top two mobile payment apps, said hackers have taken an unknown amount of money from accounts using stolen Apple Inc IDs and the issue remains unresolved despite reaching out to the U.S. giant. The breach has allegedly affected users of both Alipay and Tencent Holdings subsidiary WeChat with some users losing up to 2,000 yuan (Approx €250) A Shanghai-based spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment on this or previous apparent security breaches.
It is not clear how many users were affected by the breach but Alipay urged affected users to contact Apple. The potential breach underscores the security challenges facing China’s huge mobile payments market, where WeChat and Alipay services have become ubiquitous in daily life. It also highlights the pitfalls facing tech firms in China, where smartphone scams and personal data breaches are more common than other markets.
