A French security company called Intego has released the first antivirus app for iPhones, called VirusBarrier. This is news because so far iPhones have not needed antivirus programs, there are currently no viruses on iPhones. Here’s a breakdown of what VirusBarrier is:
What VirusBarrier does:
- it can scan email attachments – but it’s not automatic, you need to go into VirusBarrier and tell it which email attachment to scan (and only one at a time)
- it can scan files on DropBox
What VirusBarrier does not do:
- it does not scan all files or apps on the iPhone. It can’t because of Apple’s sandbox model.
- it does not do automatic scans
- it does not do scheduled scans
- it does not scan apps
So overall it seems more of a publicity stunt, it’s not something I’d spend $2.99 on.