“Apple started selling the Apple iPhone nine years ago today,” Graham Cluley blogs. “Apple was right to describe the iPhone as revolutionary. It changed the world.”
“But what I find particularly remarkable is that despite Apple selling such a popular mobile computing device for nine years, there has still been no major outbreak of malware on the platform,” Cluley writes. “[In fact], if your iPhone ever gets infected by malware at all, there’s a good chance that a state-sponsored attacker is responsible.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As opposed to Google’s wannabe platform, Android, which is famously, a toxic hellstew of vulnerablities. “Open” in all the wrong ways. Don’t settle for insecure, derivative crap.
If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone.
SEE ALSO:
Android malware hits Aussie bank customers, iOS users unaffected – March 10, 2016
Android malware steals one-time passcodes, a crucial defense for online banking – January 14, 2016
New Android malware is so bad, you’d better off buying a new phone – November 6, 2015
Apple issues iPhone manifesto; blasts Android’s lack of updates, lack of privacy, rampant malware – August 10, 2015
New Android malware strains to top 2 million by end of 2015 – July 1, 2015
Symantec: 1 in 5 Android apps is malware – April 25, 2015
Kaspersky Lab Director: Over 98% of mobile malware targets Android because it’s much, much easier to exploit than iOS – January 15, 2015
Security experts: Malware spreading to millions on Android phones – November 21, 2014
There’s practically no iOS malware, thanks to Apple’s smart control over app distribution – June 13, 2014
F-Secure: Android accounted for 99% of new mobile malware in Q1 2014 – April 30, 2014
Google’s Sundar Pichai: Android not designed to be safe; if I wrote malware, I’d target Android, too – February 27, 2014
Cisco: Android the target of 99 percent of world’s mobile malware – January 17, 2014
U.S. DHS, FBI warn of malware threats to Android mobile devices – August 27, 2013
Android app malware rates skyrocket 40 percent in last quarter – August 7, 2013
First malware found in wild that exploits Android app signing flaw – July 25, 2013
Mobile Threats Report: Android accounts for 92% of all mobile malware – June 26, 2013
Latest self-replicating Android Trojan looks and acts just like Windows malware – June 7, 2013
99.9% of new mobile malware targets Android phones – May 30, 2013
Mobile malware exploding, but only for Android – May 14, 2013
Mobile malware: Android is a bad apple – April 15, 2013
F-Secure: Android accounted for 96% of all mobile malware in Q4 2012 – March 7, 2013
New malware attacks Android phones, Windows PCs to eavesdrop, steal data; iPhone, Mac users unaffected – February 4, 2013
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “TJ” for the heads up.]
The only reason iPhones don’t get viruses is because so many more people use Windows Phones.
Hey! You’re knocking ‘Security Through Obscurity’! How dare you! It’s the foundation of anti-Apple security FUD! What are the FUD mongers going to use now?! 🙀
There’s two advantage of using iOS device
1. Harmonious cloud syncing across all devices. Can’t find that on others devices
2. Invincible against inconvenience. virus, malware, freezing, blue screen of death, restart itself, etc. non of all that
I believe I read somewhere that android broke all records because they managed to get more than 400 thousands virus an malware en just 3 years.
Microsoft Windows took like 10 years to each that many (it was like in 300 thousands in 2012.
See, apple is not always #1 🙂
“what I find particularly remarkable … there has still been no major outbreak of malware on the platform”
If you find that remarkable, you obviously don’t know much about Apple products.
Security through obscurity. That’s what they always said about the Mac.
This makes me think that Apple should bring back the I’m a Mac/I’m a PC commercial series except with Justin Long playing I’m an iPhone and some actor dressed as a homeless person playing I’m an Android. That would about sum it up.
Actually it would be a near “Android” duplicate of Justin Long with some things not quite right, with a nervous tick or two. “I’m as good as you,” it bravely says. And then proceeds to unwittingly underline why it isn’t.
OS X was released in 2001 and we’re still haven’t seen that “inevitable virus that will wipe the smug smiles off your faces” which Windows users have been promising us will arrive “any day now”, especially for all those “complacent fools who don’t think it’s necessary to run anti-viral software”.
As we have seen the Mac remaining a stable and secure platform for 15 years, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to see that iPhones have also remained secure.
The most widespread exploits on both IOS and OS X seem to have come via social engineering exploits rather than viral means. If they can’t find a way to fool the system, they have to resort to fooling the user instead.
Meanwhile, this week on Android:
“Godless” apps, some found in Google Play, can root 90% of Android phones
Malware family packages a large number of exploits that give all-powerful root access.
Researchers have detected a family of malicious apps, some that were available in Google Play, that contain malicious code capable of secretly rooting an estimated 90 percent of all Android phones….
Godless is only the latest Android malware to use rooting bugs to gain a persistent foothold on handsets. Last November, researchers discovered a family of more than 20,000 trojanized apps that used powerful exploits to gain root access to the Android operating system.
Android: The single most dangerous OS available today. Enjoy!