This question is asked a lot, especially from new iPhone users who have used Android before, Do I need antivirus? What is the best antivirus for iPhone and iPad? Of course, we answer, no, you do not need an antivirus for iPhone or any device on which iOS is installed, such as the iPad. But what is the reason? Is not iOS system like any operating system? Even Macs have viruses, so why are there no viruses on iOS? The reason will be explained in this article ...

Anti-virus

💀 Note: We are talking here about the iPhone without jailbreak and without downloading applications from outside the software store, because if the user jails or downloads applications from outside the software store, he penetrates the operating system by himself and opens the door to enter viruses and applications that may harm his privacy.

What are viruses and how do they get to your computer?

In order to understand why the iPhone and its system are immune to viruses, we must first understand what viruses are and how they reach your device, and simply viruses are software codes within any program, but these codes do something that harms you. Either they exploit your information by monitoring you or showing you advertising content Or take advantage of your device's resources such as the Internet and your processor to do things useful to its developer. And because viruses are just software codes, they are often entered through applications that appear innocent and perform a useful task for you, but the malicious code is hidden inside them, and viruses have the ability to copy this code within other applications and thus spread to other devices when sharing applications and files. And in order to get a virus, you must get an application or file that contains malicious code, which we call a virus.

IOS system and virus immunization

Since the inception of the iPhone operating system, Apple has put security of the operating system as a priority for it, and we do not say that it is the first to do this, but it is one of the companies that is still making the utmost effort to secure the operating system and at the same time give space for user freedom, you must know that security and privacy It comes at the expense of freedom, and therefore some prefer the Android system because it has freedom, but for the sake of this freedom it sacrifices its privacy, and this has been proven in the reports of the spread of viruses on Android devices.

In order to explain how the iOS system protects itself against viruses, we must know the term called SandBox or sandbox, this term is not difficult to understand, imagine with me that every application that works in the iOS system works inside a closed box and therefore cannot deal with other funds or Other applications or even system resources, unless permitted by the operating system and under tight control.

If you want to imagine an application running on an iPhone device, look at this image, and you will see the application trapped inside a sandbox that cannot do anything outside of this box.

Compared to the Android operating system, you will find that the application has the whole playing field in front of it, does what it wants, knows what it wants and uses all system resources. (Of course, the Android system tries in every release to narrow the screws to reach at some point better security)

The benefit of the sandbox in iOS

So after we understand the term sandbox, we want to know what is its benefit and how does it prevent viruses? Imagine with me that you have an application with malicious codes that these codes would like to see your information and the information of other applications, so these codes try to get out of the sandbox, and they cannot and are prevented by the system, and therefore even if the application contains malicious codes, it is malicious on itself and does not see from the outside world any Nothing and nothing is known except what the user has allowed and exactly as needed.

Drawbacks of a sandbox in iOS

He told us that securing the system comes with a price, which is the limitation of freedom, and therefore the disadvantages are that even useful applications are restricted. You cannot communicate with other applications and cannot share files with other applications or information. Therefore, all the disadvantages of the iOS system are because it is secured by sandbox technology. For example, you cannot download videos easily and transfer files from application to application. You cannot change many system properties, and no application has authority and resources except what the operating system allows.

Conclusion

The iOS system does not need an antivirus, even if you download an application from the software store with malicious code, and this is difficult (but not impossible) because Apple is performing a precise detection stage before making any application available in the software store, and even if you try to download an application from outside the software store from Via a web browser, this application will be in a box and will not harm other applications or the operating system. Thus you are safe, even the apps that claim to be anti-virus for iOS are just apps that do nothing in reality and you can't even go out of the box to detect the presence of any viruses.

But all this equation changes if you do a jailbreak, one of the basics of jailbreaking is to break this box and thus give freedom to applications, so you find jailbreaking applications do what the software store applications cannot do, but with the freedom of the jailbreak, viruses will definitely come to you, because you and yourself broke The box that protects you, or if you like, call it the prison break that Apple put you in.

Do you prefer Apple prison with security for your privacy or do you prefer freedom and sacrifice your privacy, tell us in the comments

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