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shallowdeep -> RE: So i am getting an Iphone (7/4/2010 12:42:31 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: barelynangel
My biggest question is -- What about virus protection, do i need it, does it come with it etc?
Short answer: No, you don't really need any and, furthermore, there is none available. Keeping the phone's software up to date is the only measure you should take.
Long answer: The iPhone is a much more restrictive, and therefore secure, environment than a PC, so viruses and spyware aren't something you need to be as concerned about. iPhones require that all code be "signed" by Apple before they will execute it. The signature is a security method (I'll spare you the math) used to guarantee that a program came from Apple's App Store and has not been tampered with since then. Before an application can be distributed in the App Store, it has to be submitted to a review process that screens for, amongst other things, security and privacy issues before granting approval. This makes it very challenging for a would-be attacker to get any malware running on the phone. As further protection, the OS also isolates programs in individual "sandboxes" with limited access to the rest of the system. So, even if one program is compromised, the effect is limited. Finally, while it's not a security feature per se, an iPhone simply does less than a computer, thus presenting a smaller "attack surface" where vulnerabilities can be found.
The end result is that, apart from jailbroken iPhones (where the owner intentionally disabled code signing and enabled ssh) I'm not aware of malware affecting iPhones in the wild.
Still, it's difficult to make a complex system perfect and security experts do still find vulnerabilities occasionally. Notably, a successful hack of an iPhone was demonstrated at CanSecWest in March. Apple periodically issues software updates that include patches for discovered vulnerabilities, so keeping your phone's software up to date is important to maintain its security.
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