Apple flexes its muscles. In its latest security report for the year 2025, the Cupertino firm paints a striking picture of its fierce fight against cybercrime which is plaguing its ecosystem. The amount of suspicious transactions intercepted increased to $2.2 billionbringing the total for the last six years to more than 11.2 billion. It is a real underground economy which is thus put in check. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The offensive is being played out on all fronts.
What are the key figures of this invisible war?
The scale of the threat is simply massive. Apple reveals that it refused more than two million applications problematic in 2025, a slightly increasing statistic which shows constant pressure from malicious actors. Among them, nearly 59,000 applications used “bait-and-switch” techniques, presenting themselves as harmless tools before revealing their fraudulent nature after validation. A real game of cat and mouse on a very large scale.
But the most spectacular figure concerns the creation of accounts. Apple’s arsenal foiled 1.1 billion attempts of creation of fraudulent accountsa stratospheric leap compared to 711 millions of the previous year. This is proof of a true industrialization of attacksprobably carried out by increasingly sophisticated botnets (networks of infected machines). At the same time, 193,000 developer accounts were simply deleted for suspicion of fraud.
How is Apple combining AI and humans to achieve this?
Faced with such a deluge, the response could only be technological. The Cupertino company has invested massively in a multi-layered approach. L’ artificial intelligence is on the front lines, analyzing millions of app submissions (more than 9.1 million in 2025) to spot suspicious patterns, similarities to known malware, or hidden code changes. This automated analysis allows an initial sorting with formidable efficiency.
However, AI is not everything. This is where human expertise comes into play. The App Review teams focus on the most complex cases, those where the subtlety of the fraud eludes the algorithms. It is this duo, machine and human, which makes it possible to maintain the ecosystem quality. This collaboration not only helps flush out fraudsters but also accelerates the validation of legitimate applications, a crucial issue for the 306,000 new developers welcomed to the platform in 2025.
Beyond transactions, what other threats are being targeted?
The battle is not limited to payments and malicious apps. Apple is also tackling the manipulation of perception. Its systems have processed more than 1.3 billion notes and of opinionblocking near 195 million fake comments even before their publication. An essential cleanup to ensure that an app’s popularity is not the result of organized cheating. Nearly 7,800 misleading apps were also banned from search results.
Another facet of this fight concerns piracy. The firm identified and blocked 28 000 applications illegally distributed on pirate sites. These illegitimate copies can be modified to embed malware and damage the reputation of honest developers. By blocking these parallel distribution channels, Apple protects not only its users but also the intellectual property creators who have chosen its platform. It is a 360 degree defense of the app store security.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Is the total amount of fraud prevented by Apple known?
Yes, over the last six years, Apple says it has prevented a total of more than $11.2 billion in fraudulent transactions on its platform.
Is the threat of fraudulent apps increasing?
The 2025 figures show an increase in the number of blocked transactions (2.2 billion compared to 2 billion in 2024) and the number of rejected applications (more than 2 million compared to 1.9 million), indicating increasing pressure from cybercriminals.
