How to scan if IPhone has Malware/Trojan/Virus?

[ronniejoe]

I have an IPhone SE that i bought years ago. I am pretty certain I was careful with clicking on things with it... but back then I heard you couldn't or it was very hard to get malware/virus on IOS as oppose to android. Is this true?


How do i check to make sure I don't have any malware/trojan/virus on my iphone SE? What program do i download for that to check and it will confirm i have or don't have malware? I'm much more concerned about trojan and keyloggers.


I notice on how many youtube videos, you see people post comments and some seem to be links which im pretty certain are malware/virus. Would it be safe to assume that? So clicking on those would get you trojan/malware/keylogger? But doing it on a an iphone won't protect you still right? But if you do it on android, its malware/virus almost always? I ask this because i want to download some financial programs on my iphone but want to make sure there is no malware/trojan/keylogger etc on it. How do i do this besides doing a factory reset which would wipe everything clean?

 

[DeltaMac]

Relevant item from the Malwarebytes website:

Scanning for malware on iOS devices

Due to security restrictions on iOS, it is not possible for any app to scan the system or other apps for malware. Apps are not allowed those kinds of permissions, and for that reason, antivirus sof...

support.malwarebytes.com

 

[ronniejoe]

Wait, i actually noticed I downloaded the Avast Security App on my iphone a while back.


So that doesn't do anything then?


Well what happen if you download an app or open a file and it has malware/keylogger or things like that in your iphone? I heard android and google play store has lot apps that are like that. So with iphone and IOS, no issue? What if you click on someone's link though or visit certain websites that might have malware?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Stick to downloading well-known apps from the App Store.

Don't click on links in messages from people you don't know. And even with people you know, exercise caution. Ask the person what he or she linked to you, before clicking the link.

Keep your iPhone iOS up to date.

-------------

Practice those steps every day and you should be fine.

The Apple App Store is much better than Android. It is much safer. As a whole, you shouldn't worry about mainstream apps.

Enjoy your phone and stop overthinking safety. iOS has very good preventive security.

 

[IceStormNG]

Apple scans Apps for malicious code (Goole also does that). Sure, that's not 100% safe, and the App review is also not 100%. But if you don't download scummy Apps from the AppStore, think twice before grating apps permissions to your data and keep your phone updated with security patches, you're good to go.

AV software on iOS is a scam. They can't do anything as they're as sandboxed and locked down as any other app on your phone. There are not a lot of viruses out there for iOS and the ones that really work, are usually only used precisely against High value targets, not the masses. If you abuse a security hole against he masses, that exploit is burned because it's only a matter of time until the OS manufacturer fixes them.
As iOS is quite secure, iOS exploits are worth a lot on the black market as they're rare.

It's unlikely (but not impossible) that your will get hacked. Most hacks these days are social engineering anyway, which doesn't rely on the phones (in)security but to trick you into handing over access to the "hacker" yourself.

The best AV out there is your brain. Use it! Think before you click or install something.


And most important: Always have at least one backup of everything you don't want to loose.

 

[ronniejoe]

Okay thanks. So now program i could download could scan then? Again i have avast security on my iphone as app... so that doesnt work?

 

[sgtaylor5]

Okay thanks. So now program i could download could scan then? Again i have avast security on my iphone as app... so that doesnt work?

As was said above, iOS apps are sandboxed, meaning they can't look at the system. Avast couldn't work to scan the system; it is functionally prohibited from doing so.