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Apple iPhone Virus: The antivirus solution

Apple iPhone Virus: The antivirus solution

By: Daniel Chubb | August 7, 2009 | 5 Comments

The days of Apple having invulnerable systems is long gone, with the Apple pop culture spreading worldwide and becoming ever more popular, it has in doing so, attracted the likes of hackers and exploiters too. Luckily the CEO of AVG (JR Smith) has come forward to calm the nerves of the Apple supporters whose faith in Apple’s security has been somewhat shattered over the last month due to articles like THIS one about the iPhone, and THIS one about the Mac keyboards.

JR Smith has revealed to CNET UK, that he is releasing a full AVG desktop product for OS X next year, and also that he plans on releasing a piece of real-time AV software for the iPhone before the end of 2010. But when developing for the iPhone he has one big problem to overcome, the iPhone in its current state does not allow for apps to run in the background, therefore destroying the ability to have a real-time scanner, but he says it is something they are working on, “We can’t add a layer of protection on to the iPhone today, so that’s a lot of the conversation that we’re having with Apple.”

So it seems that AVG are stepping up their game to the same level of the hackers and exploiters, making plans for the Mac community as well as the portable gaming community. AVG, we here at product reviews salute you! So what does everyone else make of AVG’s plans? A promise of something good, or a promise that will never amount to anything? Let us know what you think, right here at Product Reviews.

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  • http://www.sophos.com/ Antivirus

    I am very interested in finding out what the inroads are for viruses on the iPhone. Are they susceptible to browser based attacks? I would definitely assume not. Infected apps seems to be another unlikely source. I would really appreciate a follow up that goes into some detail as to exactly how iPhones are at risk.

  • kk panda

    do we really need an i phone anti virus scanner

  • Andreas Franzen

    First, I´d like to name some facts.
    As far as I know iphone OS is generally vulnerable for viruses, trojan horses and hacks like any other OS. As a matter of fact, there is no OS which is "bulletproof".

    It is a fact that the iphone has a protection mechanism that prevents the OS as long as it is not unlocked with tools like jailbreak.

    But even if an iphone is not unlocked, it is potentially vulnerable.
    Second I´d like to point of the outlook for the iphone.
    Hackers become more and more focused on Smartphones as they spead all over the
    world and are beginning to get common and business phones.

    Finally my assumtion is, that sooner or later, more and more viruses for the iphone will appear and the more they get the more agressive they will be.

    Sooner or later Apple will have to react on this, stating that the iphone is virus-proof is simply untrue. Things will change- I´m sure that in a couple of months everbody will have an antivirus program on his iphone- as it will become necessary.

  • http://Www.hackintosh.org John

    First of all, iPhones are already being hacked and weeknesses in the OS are being exploited, hence the numerous jailbreak applications that are out there. Secondly a real time scanning tool is entirely possible. There is a certain program users can acquire once their iPhones have been jailbroken that will allow any program to run in the iPhone’s background, whether it be a virus or a virus scanning tool. Many of Apples apps run in the background anyway, such as the phone feature itself, the iPod, and even a portion of the clock, hence the alarm clock feature that always works even when the clock app isn’t currently “open”. So those of you that assume that your iPhone is safe are just fooling yourselves. There are, however simple precations you can take to try to improve your security such as keeping your wifi and bluetooth off unless you are using a trusted network such as your home or office network. Browse only trusted sites and stay away from the darker corners of the web where the nasties tend to lurk. Practice a little common sense and do try anything daring with your iPhone such as jailbreaking it unless you are confident in your abillity to protect your device by exercising a little common sense. Yes we do need an antivirus app from a trusted software company, and fast. It’s only a matter of time before the iPhone virus wars begin, and when they do, it’s going to be ugly.

  • Robert

    It’s already possible to scan your iphone by using barrier X5 on a mac book. This isn’t for Computer-cavemen however, if you know what i mean