How can I get anti-virus and firewall for iPad?

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Level 1

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How can I get anti-virus and firewall for iPad?

My company will not allow me to use the VPN feature to access my work computer unless I have a firewall and anti-virus software. They did some limited research and couldn't find anything available. They are all still PC users! Does anyone know if the iPad has a firewall built-in or can I buy one? What about anti-virus protection? Thanks.

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.0.x)

Posted on Aug 7, 2010 7:24 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Mr.C UK

Level 2

410 points

Aug 7, 2010 7:43 PM in response to B Sinclair

Like most Mac products the iPad is not susceptible to viruses and in fact being a closed system there isn;t really any way it could be affected by one. The only software you can download for it has to come from the App store and approved by Apple. As far as I'm aware there is no anti-virus option for it.

The same goes for firewall in that there is no need for it and and there isn't one on the iPad nor an app that provides one. The router you use should have a firewall you can enable anyway.

The iPad is not like using a regular computer and there should be no risk of it affecting your company's network.

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Answer 2

RodMark

Level 1

0 points

Aug 13, 2010 5:40 PM in response to B Sinclair

It seems there are still people who believe that Macs don't get viruses and the iPad is a closed system. Even if the only way to get a virus is through an application installed on the iPad, the iPad would still be vulnerable to viruses because an iPad can, and in almost all cases does, sync to a computer with an iTunes library. The computer could simply be infected with a virus that creates an iPad app infected with a virus and places that virus infected app in the iTunes library on the computer. The virus might be made a bit more effective by naming itself with the name of a popular iPad app already in the library and simply over-writing the original app with the infected app. And since the iPad has networking capabilities via bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G, with a web browser in addition to the sync cable, it is certainly not a closed system. Infecting an iPad is nowhere near difficult to do.

Having established the fact that iPads and any other device that uses the iOS from Apple is capable of being infected, I have so far seen only one antivirus app for the iPad. VirusBarrier from Intego has an iPad protection capability but I have not yet tried the program and I am thus unable to recommend it. It does, however, appear to be the only available option right now. I will be trying this program in the near future.

http://www.intego.com/virusbarrier/
http://www.macworld.com/article/150467/2010/04/virusbarrier_ipad.html

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Answer 3

Aug 13, 2010 5:53 PM in response to RodMark

The anti-virus program you mention is for jail broken ipads... But still viruses on the iPad is pure bunk. You haven't proven anything..

Message was edited by: David M Brewer

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Answer 4

Aug 13, 2010 6:19 PM in response to RodMark

RodMark wrote:
It seems there are still people who believe that Macs don't get viruses and the iPad is a closed system.

It's not that Mac's can't get viruses. They probably could. However, no one spends much time writing them and, to date, there have been no OS X (or iOS) viruses in the wild.

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Answer 5

Aug 17, 2010 9:39 PM in response to B Sinclair

Actualy recently there is a new way to hack any idevice from apple,it is a pdf exploint used in safari,when safari opens a malicous site using pdf exploit, safari opens it automaticly,it runs it which overides your idevice and can rewrite anything!, so your basicly screwed. you can jailbreak it and download pdf warner from cydia, or just recently apple has released a update thats fixes this problem but is only avaible to iphones and ipod touches, this patch is 4.0.2 i belive. but this patch wont allow you to jailbreak your idevice from jailbreakme.com :[
so its your choice

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Answer 6

celliott147

Level 6

11,883 points

Aug 17, 2010 9:50 PM in response to B Sinclair

Honestly, your IT department *****. I am the head of the IT department at my company, and I spend the better part of the day researching tech. I knew before the iPhone and iPad came out what we could and couldn't do with them... I didn't support the iPhone until 3.0 because there wasn't enough security (I also only support the 3GS and 4 as they have on device hardware encryption). Talk to those above your IT department about the need to research...

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Answer 7

Aug 18, 2010 12:53 AM in response to B Sinclair

I would like to add that using a "personal firewall" in 2010 is stupid. A real firewall of course can protect your computer against unsolicited attacks (not ones like, for instance, the PDF exploit where your device must actually request the file that will infect it) by hiding your computer's existence from the outside world, because it is a separate device that all traffic must go through. A personal firewall cannot do this, and is instead only a program that watches network traffic to and from your computer and blocks certain combinations of ports/applications/sites. Yes, in theory a personal firewall may be able to alert you when an application that you have installed is trying to access the internet, but let's be honest, it's 2010 and every application at least attempts to access the internet in some form or another, making this an unsuitable test for nefarious purposes. There are past exploits which involved attacking open ports in, say, Windows 95, but even Microsoft cant get away with leaving their software that vulnerable anymore.

Your IT department may want to review it's policies every 10 years or so at a minimum.

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Answer 8

Jul 9, 2013 12:18 PM in response to David M Brewer

The Intego virus barrier system is NOT for jail broken Ipads. I have Intego's Virusbarrier anti virus installed on all our Apple computers and laptops. There's nothing jailbroken about my Ipad as far as I'm aware.

I have never assume that the Apple computers cannot be hacked or get a virus. A friend of ours found this out the hard way when her Ipod Touch got malware on it from being logged onto a free wifi system. It happens. My Ipad and Iphone are regularly scanned with Intego's Virusbarrier scan system to prevent any viruses from infecting the computers.

If you are concerned about viruses, consider using Intego's products. They are very good and easy to use.

For the record, I don't work for Intego.

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Answer 9

varjak paw

Level 10

170,200 points

Jul 9, 2013 1:09 PM in response to maatmouse

There is no effective antivirus that can run on iOS devices, since the same sandbox structure of iOS that makes it very difficult to get malware onto an iOS device prevents any antivirus application from working effectively and hence no such antivirus applications exist. VirusBarrier, which runs on a computer, not an iOS device, can only scan for possible viruses that would be attached to a document, and I've not seen any such virus capable of attaching to any document type that could be used on an iOS device. Hence the usefulness of such a scanning feature is highly doubtful and hence is more of a marketing come-on than a truly useful feature.

A friend of ours found this out the hard way when her Ipod Touch got malware on it from being logged onto a free wifi system.

That is not possible. There have been no viruses identified or even proposed in more than a vague theoritical way that could infect a non-jailbroken iOS device and none could be transferred simply by logging onto a WiFi access point. You and/or your friend are mistaken or misinformed.

You replied in a thread that has been inactive for almost three years, by the way.

Regards.

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