Apple has confirmed that it has been involved in an operation to clean-up its App Store after it suffered its first significant attack by hackers who placed a malicious virus in the network.

The hackers seem to have persuaded legitimate third party developers of Apple apps to use a tainted counterfeit version of Apple’s software, which was more quickly accessible from servers in China, and which managed to slip through Apple’s own stringent app review process.

These apps can transmit information about the devices that they are downloaded to, and prompt fake alerts - it is believed that the target is to steal iCloud passwords.

A statement from Apple said the company had removed the virus and was working with developers to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.

It reads: "To protect our customers, we’ve removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software and we are working with the developers to make sure they’re using the proper version of Xcode to rebuild their apps."

An Apple spokesperson added that it has not discovered "any loss of user information" tied to the security breech.

Apple has not said how customers accessing apps on their phones and iPads could determine whether their devices have been affected.