Is the Apple iPhone really that vulnerable?
Seemingly a major concern these days is whether your smartphone is safe, and as such a survey has been conducted by Trend Micro which possibly shed some light on this matter which the results of are somewhat revealing.
According to an article on slashgear, 1000 smartphone users of 18 or older were used in the survey, and Trend Micro believe that hackers are drawn to the iPhone due to iPhone users being far more likely to use the iPhone for web surfing, visiting media sharing sites, receiving large emails, and shopping.
The results show that 44 percent believe browsing is safe on the iPhone while only 23 percent use security software and 1-in-5 believe adding security software would not help anything. 20 percent of all those surveyed have been impacted by some type of phishing scam with the most likely candidate being email, although phishing scams don’t seem to be necessarily targeted at the iPhone.
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One thought on “Is the Apple iPhone really that vulnerable?”
There are virtually no real smartphone threats out there at present, and if approached correctly there is no reason for it to become a big problem in future.
The threat of smartphone malware was predicted over and over again when the first smartphone handsets came out. It was also predicted when the first iPhone was released and again when Apple launched its App Store.
Vendors such as Apple have learned very quickly that you shouldn’t allow anything to install and run on your phone without a recognised certificate. Apple is practicing this very successfully in the form of its walled garden app store, testing and certification process. If you create a binary for the iPhone you simply can’t upload and run that on your own iPhone or anyone elses. As a user, you simply can’t go and install software from just anywhere, you have to get it from Apple’s store where everything has been pre-screened for embedded malware threats.
However, smartphone platforms that allow users to install applications from untrusted sources do run the risk of issues, if not from malware but simply from poor coding that can destabilise an otherwise reliable handheld device. RIM’s BlackBerry devices run this risk, as users can download applications from anywhere, not just RIM’s app store. The same applies to Google Android devices, anything Windows Mobile-based and other platforms such as Symbian.
Until these platforms tighten up their third-party application processes, the risk remains. But it is just that – a risk – one that has so far failed to manifest itself as an actual threat.
Michael St. Neitzel
Vice President Threat Research & Technologies
Sunbelt Software