There is a bug in my Apple – Part 2

Intego announces first-ever iPhone malware scanner – really?

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218339/Mac_security_firm_ships_first_ever_iPhone_malware_scanner

Follow up on my previous post on the new security flaw discovered in Apple’s iPhone and iPad – see http://bringyourownit.com/2011/07/07/oops-there-is-a-bug-in-my-apple/

With impeccable timing, this morning Intego announded the availability of the “first-ever iPhone malware scanner”. Sure enough I went to the Apple Store and downloaded the VirusBarrier app in my iPhone and iPad. My test drive impressions: the app still leaves to the end user the responsibility to check the attachments rather than enforcing it. It is quite clunky and may provide a false sense of security: if you tap the attachment and then release the finger a little too early, you’ll end up opening up the attachment instead of scanning it(!) Probably safer – and cheaper – not to open pdf attachment in general. And as any other consumer app, there is no centralized IT management whatsoever: no reporting and no policy enforcement. One more thing: Apple is supposedly working with Adobe to address this vulnerability and will provide an update soon. At that point this app may become simply useless … but I guess this is one of those situations where “something is better than nothing” …

A few comments from a couple of Trend Micro’s experts:

Mark Bloom, Director – Director Product Marketing @ Trend Micro : “Usage or not, they [Intego] will get a lot of brand awareness out of this…..just for that value, it was worth the development effort.”

Patrick Wheeler, Sr Product Marketing Manager @ Trend Micro : “[… Apple iOS] antimalware matters, which puts us [Trend Micro] at an advantage over MDM-only vendors like MobileIron, Airwatch, and Symantec, and allows us to talk up the differentiation for our own antimalware we get from integration with SPN.”

Oops … there is a bug in my Apple!

The new security hole found in iPhones and iPads reminds us that no platform is immune to security threats and that there is in fact a need for mobile security software for Apple products.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303365804576431541102701136.html

Here we go. As it turns out Apple mobile operating system is not so secure after all. While it is common perception that iPhones and iPads are so secure that they don’t even need antimalware software, the reality is that any piece of software is potentially defective and therefore vulnerable to attacks. And Apple is no exception as shown by the recent discovery of a new security flaw affecting Apple’s best selling devices. Even worse, previously discovered security issues in iOS were limited to a minority of jail-broken devices, where end users deliberately patch the standard operating system to escape Apple’s suffocating control on device and apps – see my beer side chat on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjbqI2V18sY.

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