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Viruses on the iPad 3?

ghsDUDE

ghsDUDE

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 25, 2010
2,949
763
Ok so I was surfing the web on my iPad and started thinking...obviously Mac's don't get viruses but they can get other type of bugs if the user accidentally installs it themselves.

Can I get a virus/malware/etc. while surfing the web on my iPad? Say I was going on sketchy torrent sites, porn, "untrusted" sites that PCs would easily get viruses/malware/etc. would the iPad get infected also?

Or do I just have to go under Safari and Reset Everything to be ok?

I'm a fairly new iPad user so I just thought I'd ask.
 
johndoejohndoes said:
Ok so I was surfing the web on my iPad and started thinking...obviously Mac's don't get viruses but they can get other type of bugs if the user accidentally installs it themselves.

Can I get a virus/malware/etc. while surfing the web on my iPad? Say I was going on sketchy torrent sites, porn, "untrusted" sites that PCs would easily get viruses/malware/etc. would the iPad get infected also?

Or do I just have to go under Safari and Reset Everything to be ok?

I'm a fairly new iPad user so I just thought I'd ask.
Click to expand...

So I've asked this questions numerous times on these forums - check my threads - and EVERYBODY has told me that no - it's impossible for you to get an iOS virus at this time. Probably because Apple has tight controls over the OS, and everything is sandboxed.

So, atm, the iPad can't get viruses.
 
johndoejohndoes said:
Ok so I was surfing the web on my iPad and started thinking...obviously Mac's don't get viruses but they can get other type of bugs if the user accidentally installs it themselves.

Can I get a virus/malware/etc. while surfing the web on my iPad? Say I was going on sketchy torrent sites, porn, "untrusted" sites that PCs would easily get viruses/malware/etc. would the iPad get infected also?

Or do I just have to go under Safari and Reset Everything to be ok?

I'm a fairly new iPad user so I just thought I'd ask.
Click to expand...

I'm confused. I use a PC, yet I doubt any of those sites would result in a virus being downloaded and installed to my PC. Infact I'm 100% certain it wouldnt.
 
If you don't JB an iPad and keep the OS up to date, it's as close to impossible as you can get to get a virus or malware. When Apple approves an app, that's what they check for.
 
i recieved a spam email from paypal. it had my name on, but i know the email paypal@e.paypal.com or something is fake, so while on my ipad, i clicked the email (didn't open any links) saw it had the fake email and then archived it. i then deleted it.

is my ipad still clean, or do i need to do a hard reset just in case?? how about when i plug it into my mac, could anything transfer over??? or will both my mac and ipad be clean?
 
kingdummkopf said:
i recieved a spam email from paypal. it had my name on, but i know the email paypal@e.paypal.com or something is fake, so while on my ipad, i clicked the email (didn't open any links) saw it had the fake email and then archived it. i then deleted it.

is my ipad still clean, or do i need to do a hard reset just in case?? how about when i plug it into my mac, could anything transfer over??? or will both my mac and ipad be clean?
Click to expand...

You're fine. Clicking on links within an email is what causes the issues. But being on the iPad there shouldn't be any worry about that.
 
so just clicking on the email within mail won't do anything, only if i click a link within the email opening up their fake site in the browser *could* cause problems, but because i didn't........ there's no problem? yeah?
 
What if I go on the worst porn site with malware/spyware/viruses...will I see a slower performance/etc if I do it through Safari on my iPad or iPhone?
 
NO. IPads cannot get viruses because they ONLY run stock software and App Store apps. Impossible to get a virus n,ess jail broken.
 
johndoejohndoes said:
Ok so I was surfing the web on my iPad and started thinking...obviously Mac's don't get viruses but they can get other type of bugs if the user accidentally installs it themselves.

Can I get a virus/malware/etc. while surfing the web on my iPad? Say I was going on sketchy torrent sites, porn, "untrusted" sites that PCs would easily get viruses/malware/etc. would the iPad get infected also?

Or do I just have to go under Safari and Reset Everything to be ok?

I'm a fairly new iPad user so I just thought I'd ask.
Click to expand...

YES it is very possible (but very, very unlikely!). iOS does a lot to prevent it, and if you stick to well known web sites and apps you'll be OK (you are certainly much safer than when using a desktop computer).

It was (is??) possible to Jailbreak your device from a web site, so think what else it might be possible to do? That said you shouldn't worry about it, there's certainly no need to buy any antivirus software.


Just keep your software up to date, that's the best advice.
 
ManicMarc said:
It was (is??) possible to Jailbreak your device from a web site, so think what else it might be possible to do? That said you shouldn't worry about it, there's certainly no need to buy any antivirus software.
Click to expand...

The jailbreak from a website was a while back, and that security hole was patched almost immediately, so if you have up-to-date iOS, you have nothing to worry about. And there is no anti-virus software for the iPad, because anti-virus software work by monitoring what other apps are doing -- the very type of behavior that isn't allowed on a non-jailbroken iPad! So if anyone tries to sell you anti-virus apps for iPad, it's a scam.

There's just no practical reason to be concerned about viruses on the iPad, if a security hole is found that allows viruses to run on iPad, it'll be big news and we'll all hear about it. In fact, I've gotten in the habit of checking suspicious email and websites on my iPad, because I know they can't do anything to it.
 
Of course you can get viruses on your iPad. If you sneeze or cough on it then touch it with your hands and stick it in your mouth...
 
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