Can an iPhone get a virus?

As long as you don't use anything other than Apple's original programming and don't hack the phone, for now you should be fine. I think anything is possible in the future.

Theoretically, it could.

It would need to be malware written for OS X and the OS X optimized version included with the iPhone.

There are no viruses that current infect or affect OS X which has been available for over 6 years.

There are no known viruses that affect MacOS, which is the underlying operating system of the iPhone, though there is always potential for something like a Trojan to accompany any download, or even be present on a webpage, causing code to download to the host system as the page loads. However, so far, there are only a couple of these - one that uses a vulnerability in Quicktime which has been patched on desktop Macs in the most recent security updates and (I believe) was not present on the iPhone implementation anyway, and one which comes in the form of a supposed codec requiring to be downloaded to view specific (and x-rated) video content.

Thus while it is possible to get malware by downloading anything from a dubious source (and you can't get much more dubious than limewire), there's no indication of anything currently in circulation to cause problems to an iPhone. Likely any affect you see from such a download is the result of corruption or incompatibility in the file itself. Of course, it's also very easy to damage your Windows system by infected downloads, even if the infections don't hurt the iPhone itself.

Best to use safe (and legal) sources rather take a casual attitude and be prepared to steal commercial content.

Indeed it can!

In the UK we call it O2 😉

So I was wondering if an iPhone could get a virus on it as well?

Sure, if someone finds a way left open. The latest software update fixed one big hole, for example:

[1.1.2 update|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306993]

It was not just a theoretical hole, either. It was exploited for opening phones to third party apps.

And if so how would you fix it?

You can almost always simply restore the phone.

I thought that some of the early updates to the software on the iPhone were to fix security problems. Normally security problems are related to the ability to get into a device such as a cell phone or a computer through some devious method.

I think that the first and maybe even the second update to the iPhone back in the July/August timeframe were just such security (virus exposures) that were uncovered and heavily covered by the media (press and tv).

Was this all a ruse and not the case?? 😟

A virus, no. But f you are careless with 3rd party apps you could really mess your phone up because some things just dont work with others...

thought that some of the early updates to the software on the iPhone were to fix security problems

Yes, they were, mostly. Everyone should recall that the first update, in fact, only came along because of Safari holes that were about to be made public.

Not to mention that Jobs has publicly claimed that the SDK is delayed because of worry over the iPhone being a prime virus and malware target.

ajl917 wrote:
A virus, no. But f you are careless with 3rd party apps you could really mess your phone up because some things just dont work with others...

You are semi-correct about your 3rd party statement - but 3rd party applications were not the reason for the virus updates early in the iPhone update process.

See what MobileDev said about holes.

Why would Apple worry about you hacking your iPhone with 3rd party apps since all warranties are "null and void" if you use an unauthorized app now and in the future.

The iPhone is susceptible to a virus in the same way that your computer is susceptible.