Antivirus Software On iPad ?

[joggerjayne]

Do I need to download any antivirus software on to an iPad ???

[EvianBaby]

No.

[joggerjayne]

No? Not at all?

[EvianBaby]

Nope. Nothing. Not sure exactly how it works but Apple take care of it for you. If anyone tries to sell you anyway, you're just wasting your money. Bet the people in the Apple store didn't try did they?

[woofgang]

Macs generally are much more tightly written than PC's and much less likely to get problems. On an ipad, all the downloads come through itunes or the app store so you are doubly safe :-)

[joggerjayne]

No, the Apple chappie didn't offer me any.

[EvianBaby]

If there was one you needed, they would have tried to flog it to you.

[joggerjayne]

I suppose.

[heathfield]

There was a discussion about viruses and Apple products on Radio Scotland this a.m. The advice was to be sensible, and don't, e.g., open links on emails when you don't know who they're from. Seems those who produce viruses are starting to look at Apple Macs and iPads - the reason they ignored them and stuck to trying to infect PCs was because there are so many more PCs worldwide than Macs. Plus, infecting Macs was nowhere near as easy. Anti-virus programs are advertised for Apple products, but the opinion was that they're pretty useless, and who knows? That offer of a free anti-virus download could simply contain a virus! The consensus was - just carry on, taking the same care as you would with a PC.

[beso]

Viruses for iOS have been demonstrated. Despite only doing it to demonstrate the potential in principle the developer was subsequently banned from the AppStore for two years. Apple doesn't even want anyone to talk about it.

Apple doesn't "take care of it for you". They simply hope that virus writers will concentrate on the bigger potential in Windows. It is only a matter of time.