Apple gives security another miss

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Category: Industry News

Published on Thursday, 24 May 2012 18:24

Written by Christian Dunn

I know I sound like a broken record, and don't take me as a strong opponent to Apple (I do have an iPhone and iPad and an OS X virtual machine), but they need to improve their Enterprise credentials.

Latest news is that Apple has now turned down Kaspersky's offer to create Antivirus for the iphone. At this stage they have not allowed any major vendors to bring antivirus to iOS that is approved by apple.

So what is Apple's logic? Well, in theory you should not be able to get a virus on a properly secured device, and if your device is jailbroken, then you are not using it how Apple recommend so you are operating outside their standard design, so it is your problem, not theirs. It does kind of make sense, in a semi deluded way, but the underlying premise is that iOS does not get viruses. While this is a great concept in this day and age all devices are a potential concern. The rate of malware/virus/spyware development always exceeds that of software and the bigger you are the bigger target you are. This means that as the popularity and volume of Apple devices increases, they become a more popular target, which means more people are trying to find ways to break it, which means you are more likely to get infected.

Popularity always kills and in this case, it's true. Microsoft may seem to release a lot of updates to their software but that's because they have listened to the Enterprise and developed and adopted a measured strategy to mitigate risk by developing regular cyclical updates and supportive applications to ensure that their OS is up to date.

Now, it is nice to say that if you jailbreak your device you are not covered, I get that, but if Microsoft said that any user who didn't install every update, who modified their registry, or who installed a program they didn't approve of was not their responsibility then we would have millions of viruses/malware running around infecting computers because Microsoft didn't see it a concern, as the user was using it incorrectly.

In the end who loses? Apple and consumers. It is their reputation at stake and ultimately if a major virus or malware outbreak occurred that found a way to infect iOS today, they would be in very very big trouble. Why? because they are in denial there is a problem, which means no one is looking for a solution.

It's not a matter of if but when, I just wish Apple would consider the risk and potential impact on their customers before they make decisions such as refusing Antivirus for iOS. Their customers will thank them later.