Posted by Martijn Grooten on Aug 1, 2017
A little over a month ago, Apple's iPhone celebrated its tenth birthday. The iPhone has been one of the biggest commercial success stories ever, but it has also been a great success from a security point of view: malware targeting its iOS operating system remains extremely rare.
iPhone is 10 years old today. After 10 years, not a single serious malware case. It's not just luck; we need to congratulate Apple on this.
— Mikko Hypponen (@mikko) June 28, 2017
Malware for iOS is not completely non-existent: for example, at VB2014 a group of FireEye researchers presented a paper in which they demonstrated how the iOS Developer Enterprise Program could be used to install malware; something which was used shortly afterwards by WireLurker. However, in the rare cases iOS malware is found, it often requires the phone to be jailbroken; AdThief is a good example of that.
Apple dedicates a lot of resources to making its operating systems secure, but the main reason for the lack of malware is likely to be its tightly controlled App Store, which protects users against the biggest threat: themselves. Whether it is through opening malicious links sent via email or by installing free versions of paid-for apps, it is almost always a human mistake (understandable as they often are) that leads to an infection.
The App Store makes it almost impossible for such a mistake to lead to malware being installed. For this reason, iPhones are often recommended to those whose threat models include powerful adversaries, for example journalists and activists.
I was thus disappointed to learn that Apple has removed all VPN apps from its Chinese App Store. Though many VPN apps have issues themselves, they do offer extra protection against various threats – and not just the threat of the government finding out you're doing something they don't approve of.
I am aware that it is easy for me to criticize Apple: the company says it had no choice but to comply with Chinese law. Failing to do so could have jeopardized the company's Chinese market and thus could potentially have led to the job losses of thousands of Apple employees. The total removal of the iPhone from China wouldn't necessarily have made users better off.
Still, I would have liked for Apple to have taken a strong principled stand, like it did when the US government asked it to unlock the iPhone used by the San Bernardino shooter. Sadly, the company will soon have another opportunity to take such a stand: this weekend, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a law that bans the use of VPNs in Russia.
