iOS, the operating system of the iPhone, is usually classified as a more secure system than Android, with much less malware, to a large extent, because of how closed it is. This does not prevent the big antivirus companies from having a presence in the App Store, so We wanted to test the main iPhone antivirus to check how they behave and find out if they are recommended or not.
We were already able to conclude that antiviruses are not necessary on Android and we can anticipate that the conclusion on iOS is similar, even with more arguments against himif it fits.
Antiviruses on iOS
Luckily, Apple is much more restrictive than Google when it comes to allowing apps in the App Store, so we didn’t find too many antivirus apps. However, we do come across the classics. Specifically, for the test we have chosen Norton 360, McAfee Security, Avast Security, AVG Security and Kaspersky.
We have put them to the test to see how they work, since iOS file access and permissions system is more restrictive. For this reason, the antivirus in iOS do not have access to file memoryalthough some can analyze our photos if we ask them to.
norton 360
Norton 360 is a paid app, like almost all the antivirus that we will see in this article. 16.49 euros for the basic annual plan, which goes up to almost 100 euros a year if we pay for the “Deluxe”. When we open the app we have a very simple interface, with five functions.
- WiFi Security: Check if the network is password protected and encrypted.
- Device security: check if we have a code and if we have updated the iPhone.
- Web protection: check whether or not we have activated the Norton VPN.
- SMS Security: scans SMS for phishing.
- Safe Calendar: scans calendar invites with dangerous links
The last two Norton functions are interesting. It’s easy to kill SPAM on Apple’s calendar, and for privacy reasons, the iPhone doesn’t scan incoming calls, so it doesn’t even identify SPAM calls.
The other three security features are very unhelpfulsince we are paying for the mobile to tell us if the WiFi or the iPhone has a password, and if we have a Norton VPN active that we do not have to use to navigate safely.
McAfee
McAfee requires us to create an account (in Norton there was no need to log in) and we can’t log in with Apple, first negative point. When opening the app, it shows us a score from 0 to 1000 in “protection level”.
To obtain the maximum level of protection we have several options.
- Safe Browsing: Use McAfee VPN.
- Analyze our WiFi network.
- Check if our system is up to date.
- Give our personal data to McAfee to “protect” us.
The last point is surprising, and that is that McAfee asks us for personal data to “encrypt it when we are browsing.” It is a very difficult app to recommendsince it has practically no useful functions.
AvastSecurity
Avast Security is quite visual at the interface level, although poor in terms of functions. It is another app that urges us to use its VPN to “browse safely”. We can also give you our email to check if it has been leaked and has a function to put a key to our photo trunk.
The analysis he does is quite simple, and it is that it only indicates “problems” if we do not have web protection activethat is, if we are not using your VPN.
Avg Security
Avg Security is a duplicate of Avast Security, common practice with Avast apps on Android and the same tactic on iOS. It is exactly the same app, but by uploading it twice you can increase the number of downloads.
Kaspersky
Kaspersky, like McAfee, forces us to create an account and we can’t sign in with Apple to hide our mail from it. In this case, It also has VPN function to make browsing somewhat safer.
Also can you tell us if our mail has been leaked on the web. For the rest, it does practically nothing, beyond linking us to its password manager, a separate app.
Why it is not recommended to install an antivirus on iPhone
As you have seen, the antivirus in iOS are very limited, since the system does not give them many possibilities. They do not go beyond offering us a VPN and checking if we have an updated mobile phone with a passworda check that we can carry out ourselves in a matter of seconds.
It is not necessary to use a VPN to protect ourselves when browsing and, the checks that these apps do, we can do ourselves in a few seconds
The great advantage of having such a closed system is that in iOS it is quite difficult to get infectedsince files cannot be downloaded automatically and there are no executables (APK) that we can install accidentally.