iOS hacker circumvents in-app purchases, Apple working to shut him down

Apple has found itself in a bit of a bind these past few days, as a Russian hacker has found a way to work around the iOS in-app purchase system, allowing users to download premium content for free. On Friday, hacker Alexey V. Borodin launched a service that enables consumers to avoid in-app purchases with any device running iOS 3.0 or higher. The hack is an obvious violation of Apple's policies, and could negatively affect developer revenues on the iOS app store. So far, the service has attracted more than 30,000 illicit payment requests, reports The Next Web. Of course, Apple has now set its sights on Borodin, and has blocked the IP of the server he used to authenticate purchases. The company has also issued a request to take down the original server in hopes of preventing further violations. For a time, Borodin was also accepting donations via his site, though PayPal recently put a block on his account for breaching its terms of service. Meanwhile, the hacker has been working to stay one step ahead of Apple, and has since moved his service to a brand new offshore server, allowing him to continue operations. He told The Next Web that he's improved the service to the point where it no longer needs to interact with Apple's servers at all, making it even harder to shut him down. Borodin seems unwilling to relent with his hack, and has said that if Apple wants to stop it, it'll need to update the API used for in-app purchases, or find some other means of blocking his service. As of this writing, the hack still works, leaving in-app revenues at risk for the time being.