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Over 540,000 apps wiped from Apple App Store in Q3 reaching lowest number in 7 years

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The App Store remains a crucial segment in Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) business line; hence the number of applications on the platform has emerged as a critical metric to track. Over the years, the apps on the App Store have fluctuated marginally, but the recent quarter highlights an accelerated drop in apps. 

In particular, according to data acquired by Finbold, the number of apps in the Apple App Store hit a seven-year low during 2022 Q3 to stand at 1,642,759. The value represents a drop of 541,697 or 24.79% from the 2,184,456 registered during Q2 2022. The last time the number of apps was this low was during Q3 2015 at 1,672,271.

Elsewhere, regarding the number of apps on leading app stores globally as of Q3 2022, Google Play Store ranks top at 3,553,050 while App Store ranks second at 1,642,759. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Appstore has the third highest number of applications at 483,328. 

Policy changes trigger a drop in App Store apps 

It is worth noting that removing apps from the App Store is a perennial practice initiated by Apple as part of maintaining quality on the platform. However, the recent spike in removed apps can be attributed to several decisions by the company to improve user experience. 

In this case, in April 2022, the company notified developers that it was rolling out a plan to remove old apps that had not been updated for some time. The directive saw developers directed to make updates within 30 days or risk removal from the platform. 

Previously, Apple had not set any timeline for removing apps, but the recent update stressed that cleaning the App Store is an ongoing process and will evaluate apps, removing apps that no longer function as planned, don’t adhere to reviewed guidelines, or need to be updated.

Notably, the policy has received a lot of criticism, with developers arguing that the old apps should continue to exist on the platform as long as they are still functional. For instance, gaming developers maintain that the apps should be treated as old video games that remain playable on consoles.

At the same time, in recent months, the App Store has become a center of controversy with reported scams and fraudulent applications existing on the platform. In this case, the company resorted to removing virus-scanning apps, app clones, and other low-quality apps cluttering the App Store, with Apple maintaining that the App Store offers a safe experience for users. 

Overall, removing apps aligns with Apple’s long-standing policy of curating the App Store to eliminate apps that routinely fail to adhere to set standards. 

App Store drop in revenue

Interestingly, the drop in the number of apps has also correlated with a period in which the App Store registered one of the significant declines in revenues during 2022 Q3. Notably, the revenue plunge was also witnessed from the gaming apps that are crucial to the store’s financial performance.

In the meantime, Apple continues to explore the App Store as a possible strategic source of revenue through some decisions that have been deemed unpopular, like increasing app purchases, in-app purchases, and subscriptions from the App Store.

Elsewhere, the App Store trails the Google Play Store in the number of applications driven by factors like a larger Android market than iOS devices. Also, developing Android apps is cheaper since developers do not need significant resources. At the same time, approval for publishing apps on the Play Store is less cumbersome.

App Store future outlook  

At the same time, the outlook of the App Store is likely to be impacted in the future, especially with regulators increasingly cracking down on the company’s market dominance. This is highlighted by a recent European antitrust law that aims to allow users to install software applications from third parties.

In general, the number of apps removed from the App Store will likely increase, especially with the company targeting specific sectors. For instance, Apple recently clarified its rules for apps affecting cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). For crypto exchanges, Apple’s policy indicates that the apps may facilitate transactions or transmissions of cryptocurrency on a regulated exchange. However, such apps can only be offered in regions with licensing and permission to operate a business.

The post Over 540,000 apps wiped from Apple App Store in Q3 reaching lowest number in 7 years appeared first on Finbold.

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Succinct launches Zcam to verify photos with applied cryptography on the iPhone

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Cryptographic infrastructure firm Succinct introduced Zcam this Thursday, April 24, 2026, an iPhone camera application designed to combat misinformation. The tool utilizes applied cryptography to digitally sign photos and videos at the precise moment of capture. According to the company’s official announcement, this process creates a tamper-proof record that directly links the media file to the specific hardware of the mobile device through mathematical proofs.

The technical operation of Zcam is based on processing raw image data. The application generates a hash of the information and signs it using cryptographic keys stored within Apple’s Secure Enclave, a hardware-based security module. This method ensures that the sender’s identity and the content’s integrity remain linked, making it difficult to create synthetic content that attempts to impersonate physical reality through external software or post-production processes.

The validity of these captures is supported by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity standard. This technical framework allows publishers and end consumers to track the origin and edits of any digital piece. By integrating signed provenance metadata, the C2PA standard facilitates a clear visualization of how content was created and which tools were used during the original capture process, effectively removing any ambiguity regarding authorship.

The paradigm shift from detection toward provenance

In the current digital security landscape, the industry faces an unprecedented sophistication in automated threats. Until now, the primary defense against manipulated content focused on post-mortem detection tools that analyze pixels for anomalies. The launch of Zcam proposes a structural change: authenticating reality at the source instead of detecting lies after the content has been published on social networks or traditional media outlets.

From a market perspective, this transition is a direct response to rising threats that already compromise critical security processes. Reports from CertiK indicate that social engineering attacks assisted by synthetic media will be responsible for a large portion of financial hacks in 2026. The ability to generate fake identities has allowed new systems to breach KYC systems with an efficacy that traditional biometric verification methods can no longer contain alone in corporate environments.

The impact of this technology transcends simple personal photo capture. Industry analysts point out that cryptographic provenance could redefine sectors such as war journalism, insurance claims, and institutional identity verification. By moving blockchain technology toward mass-market hardware, Succinct seeks to establish a standard where trust does not depend on human interpretation but on mathematical proofs generated by the phone’s own silicon milliseconds after the shutter fires.

Unlike traditional software solutions, the use of the Secure Enclave introduces a layer of physical security that is difficult to emulate. However, Succinct has been transparent regarding the current limitations of its initial implementation. The company acknowledged that its software development kit has not yet been audited externally and is not considered ready for critical production environments. Cybersecurity history shows that even secure enclaves have suffered vulnerabilities, keeping media sealing as an active research area.

Integrating these tools into users’ daily workflows requires a scalable and automated verification infrastructure. Analytics firms are already working on on-chain investigations to process massive volumes of verified data, suggesting that multimedia file validation will trend toward technical autonomy. The ultimate goal is to reduce reliance on human intermediaries in the validation of digital truth within decentralized ecosystems.

The development of Zcam represents an initial step toward the mass adoption of provenance tools on mobile devices. In the coming months, Succinct is expected to release updates on the interoperability of its signatures with other social media platforms and browsers. The success of this initiative will depend on the industry’s ability to standardize cryptographic verification across all smartphone models available in the global market during the current technological cycle.

This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.

The post Succinct launches Zcam to verify photos with applied cryptography on the iPhone appeared first on The Cryptocurrency Post.

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China Already Has the Compute to Train Mythos-Level AI, Says Nvidia CEO

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has warned that China already has the infrastructure and computing power needed to train advanced AI models comparable to Anthropic’s Claude Mythos, raising concerns about potential cybersecurity risks.

Speaking on the Dwarkesh Patel podcast, Huang said the level of compute used to train Mythos is not particularly rare and is already widely available in China.

China’s AI Infrastructure Is “Abundant”

Huang emphasized that the type of hardware and capacity required to build a model like Mythos is not out of reach for China.

“The amount of capacity and the type of compute it was trained on is abundantly available in China,” he said, adding that the country already has access to the necessary chips and infrastructure.

He pointed out that China has significant unused data center capacity, describing it as having “enormous” compute resources, including fully powered but underutilized facilities.

According to Huang, China’s broader advantages include producing around 60% of the world’s mainstream chips, having a large share of global AI researchers, and access to substantial energy resources.

Rising Concerns Over AI and Cybersecurity

The warning comes amid growing concerns about the capabilities of Anthropic’s Claude Mythos model.

The AI system has demonstrated the ability to identify thousands of software vulnerabilities across major operating systems and browsers. Reports suggest that a large portion of these vulnerabilities remain unpatched, increasing the risk of exploitation.

Security researchers have also found that the model can autonomously execute complex, multi-step cyberattacks, tasks that would typically take human experts days to complete.

If a similar model were developed and misused, it could pose serious risks to global cybersecurity, particularly for institutions relying on outdated systems.

Call for Cooperation Over Confrontation

Despite the concerns, Huang cautioned against treating China purely as an adversary.

While acknowledging geopolitical tensions, he argued that collaboration and dialogue around AI development may be a more effective approach to managing risks.

“We want the United States to win,” Huang said, “but having research dialogue is probably the safest path forward.”

US Officials Highlight AI Competition

Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently described Claude Mythos as a major leap forward in AI capabilities, suggesting it strengthens the US position in the global AI race.

However, the rapid pace of development on both sides underscores the competitive and high-stakes nature of the sector.

Growing Evidence of AI Misuse

Concerns about misuse are not purely theoretical. Anthropic previously reported that a China-linked group attempted to exploit its AI coding tools to target dozens of global organizations, succeeding in some cases.

As AI systems become more powerful and accessible, experts warn that the line between innovation and risk is becoming increasingly thin.

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New AI cybercrime tool breaches banking KYC systems using advanced deepfake technology

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According to data published by Dark Web Informer, the actor Jinkusu is marketing an AI cybercrime tool capable of compromising security in 200,000 fraud cases via deepfakes. This fraudulent kit allows bypassing identity verification protocols on financial platforms, marking a critical turning point in protecting today’s global digital assets efficiently.

The system employs cutting-edge technology to perform real-time face swaps with alarming precision and speed. By integrating tools such as InsightFace, attackers achieve fluid gesture transfers that effectively deceive traditional biometrics in real-time. Since these methods evolve rapidly, trust in remote identification processes is currently under an unprecedented technical threat within the global financial infrastructure.

Jinkusu’s sophistication redefines global synthetic identity fraud

Unlike conventional impersonation methods, Jinkusu utilizes sophisticated voice modulation algorithms to personify legitimate users. This capability allows cybercriminals to bypass auditory security layers in banking institutions, generating a structural vulnerability in modern financial systems today. Despite regulatory efforts, the accessibility of these tools democratizes organized crime on a massive and dangerous scale.

Deddy Lavid, an executive at a leading platform in the blockchain sector, warns about the ecosystem’s systemic shortcomings. The expert points out that artificial intelligence drastically lowers barriers to synthetic identity fraud, making the platforms’ front doors a critical failure point. Therefore, it is imperative to adopt a layered security approach that combines verification with proactive monitoring.

Technical analysis performed by Vecert Analyzer reveals a worrying tactical transition compared to previous cycles. While 2022 attacks focused on basic phishing, in 2026 we observe a complete automation of social engineering through deep neural networks globally. This metamorphosis of the attack vector suggests that static defense methods have become obsolete against these dynamic adversaries.

How does artificial intelligence alter the current cryptographic security landscape?

Investors faced historical losses worth 5.5 billion dollars during the last fiscal year alone. These data, linked to psychological manipulation schemes, demonstrate the lethal effectiveness of combining social engineering and technology advanced artificial. Since the software does not require deep technical knowledge, the volume of potential attacks could scale exponentially during the current financial economic cycle.

The same actor, Jinkusu, has been previously linked to the launch of the dangerous Starkiller phishing kit. This malware uses a headless Chrome browser inside a Docker container, allowing to intercept credentials through a real-time reverse proxy invisibly. Although total losses from traditional attacks recently decreased, AI cybercrime keeps the alert level at maximum throughout the global markets.

The evolution of these AI cybercrime tools suggests that visual validation no longer guarantees authenticity. The use of reverse proxies and automated browsers allows attackers to replicate legitimate sessions with fidelity that current firewalls cannot detect. However, cybersecurity companies are already working on AI-based anomaly detection models to counter this growing criminal trend.

The future of security in the cryptographic environment will depend exclusively on the integration of autonomous defenses. Platforms must implement systems that not only verify the static image but also analyze behavioral patterns and network metadata suspiciously and continuously. Proactive surveillance and the constant updating of biometric detection engines will be the pillars of digital resistance moving forward.

The post New AI cybercrime tool breaches banking KYC systems using advanced deepfake technology appeared first on The Cryptocurrency Post.

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