Phone protection???

[twirlgurl]

My dad is in info-security guy for a big company (cant say which). Basically he's been a hacker for 14 years, but hes a good guy hacker not a blackhat. So he knows what he's talking about usually. According to him, android hacks are like the big targets now for hackers but hasnt heard much about iphones.

ANyway, he told me to look for anti-malware apps for my new phone (Iphone 5). I dont know of any, but when i had an Android, we install a anti-malware app and it made my battery life go way way down. Soooo... is this really needed for iphones, and if so - what do you recommend?

[Kacey]

Everything can be affected by "hacking." Those anti-malware apps help defend from certain threats, but not all.
Your dad has the correct idea though. Some safety is better than no safety...

[phuckphace]

A/V software for phones is dumb. most mobile security attacks are carried out via social engineering rather than a direct compromise like a computer virus, and in that scenario an A/V would be useless anyway. it's just going to lag out your phone and cover it with ads. it never hurts to always keep your phone's software updated to the latest version, though.

the biggest security threat with phones is identity theft, if your phone gets stolen. making sure you have "remote wipe" enabled will do you more good than screwing with an A/V app.

[Magenta]

A/V software for phones is dumb. most mobile security attacks are carried out via social engineering rather than a direct compromise like a computer virus, and in that scenario an A/V would be useless anyway. it's just going to lag out your phone and cover it with ads. it never hurts to always keep your phone's software updated to the latest version, though.

the biggest security threat with phones is identity theft, if your phone gets stolen. making sure you have "remote wipe" enabled will do you more good than screwing with an A/V app.

This basically. Don't keep any sensitive information on your phone that you don't absolutely require and keep it up to date. Apple is pretty good about security updates and if there is a problem going around, they release updates almost as soon as they hear about it. All you're going to do is drain your battery running something like that in the background constantly.

Just don't jailbreak your phone and if you have a warranty on it, Apple will take care of any potential issues, should that ever happen. It's highly unlikely though.