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iPads and anti virus advice
claire33
25-12-2011
Just got an iPad for Christmas and need to know if you have to have anti virus/firewall on it or is it not necessary?
TH14
25-12-2011
Not necessary
skunkboy69
25-12-2011
Yeah,they don't do anything capable of getting a virus
jkain
25-12-2011
A virus on an ipad?. Apparently there's not an app for that..
skunkboy69
25-12-2011
And if there was it would cost £2.99 lol
claire33
25-12-2011
Thanks Must be different to a pc.
Rich_L
25-12-2011
I'm sure I've seen one advertised on the telly.
Matt D
25-12-2011
There are a small number of AV apps available, but they're fairly pointless. One I saw was only for scanning email attachments for Windows viruses, and had poor reviews.

iOS is very secure. Only approved apps can run, and they can only be obtained from the App Store. Apple has a strict approval process, and AFAIK there is no known iOS malware in the wild.
alanwarwic
25-12-2011
It depends if you call Carrier IQ on iphones as malware.
No IOS AV software ever found it. An approved app can still be malware yet no AV software ever found the declared and known ones. (I could be wrong here so the jailbreak community might say otherwise)

Maybe IOS AV software will improve but they do not look worth having at the moment.
Matt D
25-12-2011
CarrierIQ on iPhones etc. is being removed. But, when it was there, it was openly there, and you had to specifically opt-in. When first setting up the iPhone part of the set up involved specifically choosing whether to send anon. statistics back to Apple or not.

Not quite the same as CarrierIQ on other platforms...

And of course look at the actual proper malware on other platforms...
alanwarwic
25-12-2011
What's this "Was there" thing?
I though Apple have stopped supporting Carrier IQ just like Adobe have stopped supporting Flash.

And I thought it was for the mobile networks use, not Apple's.
Matt D
25-12-2011
On iOS, it was for Apple's use, for providing anon. usage statistics. Not for all the OTT logging it was used for on the carriers' behalf on other platforms. And it wasn't hidden - it was used by an option within Settings, an option which is off by default and has to specifically be opted in to.

"Was there" as in it was there, and now it is not. Apple's removed it from everything running iOS5 bar the iPhone 4, which it will remove it from completely with a "future update".

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...-and-texts.ars
alanwarwic
25-12-2011
So you are saying it is on and used on 100% of all the iPhone 4. That then it seems is the only Carrier IQ in the UK.

I wonder all this is/was in the stuff that Apple sent/sends back to base every 12 hours when wifi is on.
I wonder if Apple owns the data and then send it onto networks.

"We also wonder if and how Carrier IQ is still being used on iOS devices that haven't been updated to iOS 5, and we asked Apple if it is continuing to use any other software that would be similar to Carrier IQ. "

I imagine much of Apple's recent changes were a reaction to that location recording software they also had running,
Matt D
25-12-2011
Originally Posted by alanwarwic:
“So you are saying it is on and used on 100% of all the iPhone 4.”

It is still present - for now - on the iPhone 4 but as I said before in both previous posts it has to be opted into.

Originally Posted by Matt D:
“it was used by an option within Settings, an option which is off by default and has to specifically be opted in to.”

A user would have to deliberately go to Settings > General > About > Diagnostics & Usage and then choose "Automatically Send".

Or

When setting an iPhone up for the first time, a user would have to deliberately opt in when it asks you during the set up if you want to enable diagnostic reporting.


Not on by default, plus the data is only for Apple.

Quote:
“"It was just for diagnostic data that was sent to Apple, and customers had to actively opt in to that to even provide us that level of information," Apple tells us. "If they opted in, that data was sent anonymously, and in encrypted fashion. We did not record keystrokes, messages or any personal information for the diagnostic data, and we have no plans to in the future."”


Anyway. This has nothing to do with the topic in question. Carrier IQ on iOS was not malware. It was present because Apple put it there, so obviously no AV would detect it as it was part of the OS. And when it was present, it was a) purely for sending anon. data to Apple, and b) it had to specifically be opted into. Not hidden, not secret, no keystroke logging, no SMS logging, etc.
alanwarwic
25-12-2011
Carrier IQ is innocuous stuff anyway but again does show how much can be hidden.
Matt D
25-12-2011
This makes interesting reading:

McAfee - Securing Mobile Devices: Present and Future
dadioflex
26-12-2011
Originally Posted by Matt D:
“This makes interesting reading:

McAfee - Securing Mobile Devices: Present and Future”

Interesting reading from a firm that is invested in making people paranoid about viruses.
Matt D
26-12-2011
Did you read it?

It's hardly a case of "watch out for mobile viruses!!!! Buy our software!!!!".
psionic
26-12-2011
Originally Posted by alanwarwic:
“Maybe IOS AV software will improve but they do not look worth having at the moment.”

Is there any AV software for iOS?
alanwarwic
26-12-2011
Matt said so.

His link no doubt is also a tarted up advert for McAfee VirusScan Mobile.
I wonder if it is mainly a permissions monitor in case you give a new app permission to dial phone numbers etc.
Matt D
26-12-2011
Originally Posted by psionic:
“Is there any AV software for iOS?”

Originally Posted by Matt D:
“There are a small number of AV apps available, but they're fairly pointless. One I saw was only for scanning email attachments for Windows viruses, and had poor reviews.”

No malware on iOS > the only AVs are for scanning for Windows viruses on emails etc.

e.g. http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/virus...436111378?mt=8

Originally Posted by alanwarwic:
“His link no doubt is also a tarted up advert for McAfee VirusScan Mobile.”

If you read it you would know that it isn't.
alanwarwic
26-12-2011
Someone might even believe your comment that there is no malware on IOS.

All they will done is get an APP accepted by Apple to await a timed trigger action.
Its how all the openly declared ones work/worked.
Matt D
26-12-2011
From the McAfee link you don't seem to want to read:

Quote:
“Apple so far has done an excellent job of securing its devices; as we write this there were no reported cases of malware for iPhones that have not been jailbroken. (Jailbreaking opens the iPhone to unauthorized apps, posing a security risk because it allows any unsigned software to run.)”

A pie chart showing malware by OS.


An article at Wired.com on the McAfee report: Android Malware Explodes, iOS Remains Safe


You may not like Apple's "walled garden", but iOS is far more secure and far safer than Android.


The only "malware" example you could come up with earlier was of CarrierIQ... something which: (a) was in place because Apple put it there (so of course no AV would find it), (b) only collected anon. usage stats to send solely to Apple, and (c) had to be specifically opted into, specifically and deliberately enabled by the user. Far different to the other implementations of CarrierIQ on other phones and platforms in the US (as it was not some secret hidden thing allegedly acting like a rootkit... it was off by default, had to be opted into, and only sent a limited amount of data to Apple).
alanwarwic
27-12-2011
It's not a question of liking it.

I don't have a Xbox or PS 3 or gameboy either because I don't require their similar offerings.
It will be exactly the same with next generation gadgets like that new Sony Vita.
At the moment I can't even justify a use for a standard computer tablet.

Android through being open will become as secure as Linux.
There are just no ostriches here and a main reason why the internet runs on Linux.
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