U.S. tech giant Apple is having to clean up following an invasion of a malicious programme called XcodeGhost. The company’s iOS App Store has been working to remove iPhone and iPad programs identified in the first large-scale attack on the popular mobile software outlet. Several cyber security firms have reported finding a malicious program that was embedded in hundreds of legitimate apps. An Apple spokesperson says the tainted version of Xcode was downloaded from a server in China that developers may have used because it allowed for faster downloads than using Apple's U.S. servers. Apple declined to say how many apps it had uncovered.