iPhone Viruses: How Safe Is Your Smartphone?
Computer viruses are everywhere these days; they not only cost businesses and individuals millions of pounds a year in antivirus software and malware detectors. In the UK, cybercrime and computer viruses cost the UK economy a whopping £27 billion per year according to a report released by the UK government and this number is actually larger than the number of victims that drugs are causing to the British economy in the last 7 years.
As if things weren’t getting worse, now comes a new stream of malicious code that can harm your iPhone. Said to have been created by an unknown 21-year-old computer geek, a new worm virus called “ikee” is spreading across Australia, infecting many Apple iPhones with deadly precision that, if left unchecked, can affect more units in the US and here in the UK. .
This malicious code that infects Apple’s smartphone wallpaper and changes it to an image of 1980s singer Rick Astley while a message appears at the top reading “Ikee will never leave you “. Once you see this on your iPhone, you will have a bit of a headache.
Ultimately, only owners who have phones running Symbian OS 6, Windows Mobile OS, and Android should really be concerned about viruses on their phones, especially if they regularly use their mobile phones to share data over Bluetooth because they have more possibilities. from being infected by mobile viruses. Maybe the time has come to develop and release a competent iPhone antivirus; but the problem with this is that they may have a hard time getting support from Apple on this.
The reason is that most of these viruses that have affected the iPhone could only enter the phone system due to the weakness caused by jailbreaking the phone and this is obviously against Apple’s policy. So why jailbreak the phone in the first place and make it vulnerable to a virus attack? Well, it is the biggest concern for most iPhone users; they want to use their favorite app and apple doesn’t support it, so jailbreak at your own risk. And what a risk it is!
British mobile phone owners are famous for taking care of their devices and mobile phones. In the UK, revenue from iPhone insurance purchases is a regular and consistent business. iPhone 3g and iPhone 4 insurance covers theft, accidental damage, and even loss and fraudulent calls; pretty comprehensive compared to a few years ago where most insurance providers don’t cover like they do now. But we have yet to see insurance providers protect smartphone owners from viruses and malicious code, especially if they got it from tampering with their phone. So the best advice for now: take care of your iPhone and avoid using your Bluetooth as much as possible.