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There’s practically no iOS malware, thanks to Apple’s smart control over app distribution

“Everyone knows there’s no iOS malware, right?” Larry Seltzer writes for ZDNet. “Strictly speaking, there is. As a practical matter, there isn’t. At least if you stick with the official Apple store, you are more likely to win Powerball than to be hit by iOS malware.”

“But to make that ‘strictly speaking’ point, FortiGuard Labs’s Axelle Apvrille (‘the Crypto Girl’) felt it necessary to list all the iOS malware on record — all 11 instances, eight of which work only on jailbroken phones,” Seltzer writes. “Apple’s business practices for app distribution have made it nearly impossible to get malicious software to users. Unlike on Android where you can, and many do, choose to get apps from third-party stores, with iOS there is exactly one place you can get your software: Apple’s App Store.”

“It’s not like iOS isn’t an inviting target,” Seltzer writes. “There are zillions of devices out there and iOS customers have shown that they are willing to spend money on apps.”

MacDailyNews Take: Yet another nail in Security via Obscurity’s coffin of nails.

“Instinctively, I don’t like the tight control Apple has over their app ecosystem, but I’ve long ago given up objecting to it,” Seltzer writes. “They got it right, which is why Microsoft is copying the model closely. What could never work on PCs and Macs works great on mobile.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: How stupid does one have to be to settle for a fragmandroid phone when an Apple iPhone is right there for the taking? When Apple finally, blessedly gets around to releasing an iPhone with a larger screen than the current 4-inches, Android is dead at the high and mid/high end (quality customers, which the only type of customer that really matters).

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