Hijinks are afoot on Apple's App Store. According to blogger Alexandru Brie, 41 different books on the "Top Books Paid Software" listing of Apple's online store were all created by a publisher named "mycompany/Thuat Nguyen." That's a pretty significant accomplishment for these many titles, a number of which have no ratings or reviews whatsoever.

Hijinks are afoot on Apple's App Store. According to blogger Alexandru Brie, 41 different books on the "Top Books Paid Software" listing of Apple's online store were all, strangely enough, created by a publisher named "mycompany/Thuat Nguyen." That's a pretty significant accomplishment for these many titles, a number of which had no ratings or reviews whatsoever.

It doesn't help the fact that comments left for some of these very books indicated that users' accounts had been "hacked" in some fashion and said titles purchased without their knowledge or approval. A number of subsequent Twitter postsand one giant list on the Macrumors Forumsindicate that there's been a prevalence of App Store account hacking going on lately.

Are these two separate stories related? Yes and no. TheNextWeb has summed up the facts of the past week or so, and here's what's definitely going on.

First off, a number of Apple Store accounts have been accessed sans users' permissions. The person or people tapping into the accounts have made a number of purchases, anywhere from $100 to $600 worth of items. They typically do so by buying a large assortment of inexpensive apps ($1-$3) before nailing an accountholder with a larger purchasehundreds of dollars and up.

Apple has been contacted about the matter. While TheNextWeb reports that no response has been given other than a suggestion that users change their passwords, Brie says that he's been contacted by Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Philip Schiller, in regards to the oddities occurring on the "top books" listing.

[update] An updated report by 9to5Mac now states that the "mycompany" developer has had his or her applications completely nuked on the App Store and that Apple has returned the listings to their correct values.

There's no indication that these account infiltrations are indicative of a larger attack on Apple Store security or whether they're just isolated, yet noteworthy breaches. As well, these hacks weren't the only reason why the aforementioned 41 books were rocking the top of the paid-for listings.

If you're nevertheless concerned about App Store security, be sure to look into your "previous purchases" listing from time to time for evidence of unauthorized activityor just unlink your credit card details from your account!