Why Your iPhone Is Safe From Viruses — and When to Worry

Let's start with the good news: most iPhone users don’t have to worry about their phone getting a virus. It's rare for iPhones to get viruses, but other types of malware, like spyware or adware, could pose a threat, especially if you jailbreak your device.

While it's technically possible for iPhones (and iPod touches and iPads, since they all run on a similar operating system) to get viruses, the likelihood of that happening is very low. Only a few iPhone viruses have been developed, and many of those were created by security professionals for academic and research purposes and haven't been released on the internet.

Why iPhones Don't Typically Get Viruses

Viruses are programs that are designed to do malicious things — like stealing your data or taking over your computer — and spread themselves to other computers. In order to achieve its purpose, the virus must be installed on your phone, be able to run, and also communicate with other programs to get their data or control them.

The architecture of iOS, the iPhone's operating system, doesn't let apps do these things. Apple designed iOS differently than Google designed Android, so every app runs in its own, restricted "space." While apps can communicate with each other, those options are limited. By restricting the ways apps interact with each other and with the operating system itself, Apple reduced the risk of viruses on the iPhone.

The risk is even further decreased based on how users get apps. Generally speaking, you can only install approved apps from the App Store, which means viruses can't install themselves. Plus, Apple evaluates every app in detail before it's available in the App Store to ensure it's virus-free, among other things. With so many layers of security, it's a pretty safe system.

What Increases the Risk of Getting a Virus?

The only iPhone viruses that have been seen "in the wild" (meaning that they're an actual threat to iPhone owners) are worms that almost exclusively attack iPhones that have been jailbroken. So, as long as you haven't jailbroken your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, you should be safe from viruses. 

To get a sense of the risk of a virus on an iPhone, check out what antivirus software is available in the App Store. Turns out, there aren't any. At least, they don't work the way you might be thinking.

All of the major antivirus companies — McAfee, Trend Micro, etc. — have security apps available for the iPhone, but none of them have antivirus tools. Instead, they focus on helping you protect your privacy by backing up your data, locating lost devices, securing your web browsing habits, etc.

There simply aren’t any true antivirus programs in the App Store. The ones that carry that name are games or tools to scan attachments for viruses that couldn't infect iOS anyway. The closest any company came to releasing one was McAfee. They developed an internal app back in 2008 but never released it. If iPhones could get viruses in any serious way, you can be sure apps would be available.

How to Keep Your iPhone Safe

If your phone is acting strangely, what's most likely is that one of your apps is just buggy and needs to be updated or deleted.

If your iPhone is jailbroken, though, you may actually have a virus. Your phone might have a virus if the battery drains faster than normal, there are strange pop-ups, or you see apps you don't remember downloading.

Getting rid of the virus may be tricky, but you can try the following:

• Deleting apps that you suspect may have carried the virus.
• Restoring from a backup that you know isn't infected.
• Restoring your phone to factory settings (but not before backing up your data!).