Do viruses afect a new iPhone?

J.k.kendrick46 wrote:

I get tons of stuff everyday saying I have 5 viruses on my iPhone.

As there are no viruses that affect iPhones (unless it's been jailbroken), these are obviously just spam. Delete them.

ajackiv wrote:

My iPhone 13 would beg to differ. It was absolutely infected with malware.

It absolutely was not. Not unless YOU jailbroke it or willingly installed a management profile allowing someone else to install unauthorized apps.

J.k.kendrick46 wrote:

I get tons of stuff everyday saying I have 5 viruses on my iPhone. I have tried all different virus programs that are supposed to work on my iPhone but it never gets rid of it. They say my phone is sending out tons of sms messages a day. I don’t see them but I sure have to delete a lot of junk daily. Takes up a lot of time.

Yeah, looking in my spam folder, I’ve been getting absolute piles of another sort of spam.

These particular spammers have clearly found something that works for a higher percentage of their recipients, and they’re going to hammer on it. At least until the spammers’ A-B testing indicates the campaign is fading in efficacy, and then they’ll switch. Advertisers and politicians and propagandists all have themes they hammer on. Fear is a popular choice for advertising, for propaganda (we’re swimming in that lately), and for misinformation.

Here? Mark it as junk. Filtering rules within Apple Mail or a mail server usually either don’t work or work only transiently, though I’ve deployed a few rules for certain spam over the years.

I use a spam filter on a Mac, and have access to a spam filter on the mail server, all of which I can train to specific patterns. If you have a Mac around, SpamSieve works well. This also does mean the Mac will need to be running continuously.

iCloud does have some very simplistic mail filtering rules, but it’s inadequate for most spam-filtering tasks. Other mail providers can do better here, and higher-end mail providers can offer access to SpamAssassin or similar tooling.

Malware for iPhone does exist, it’s been rare and targeted based on available info, but those folks don’t need to tell you about it, they just go do whatever it is that they have spent vast sums in exploits and exploit tooling to be able to do.

Add-on anti-malware for iPhone cannot scan the device, but they can capture and log and track your network metadata, if they’re inclined. Potentially also resell it too, as one well-known Mac anti-malware package was caught doing a few years ago. That app installation is quite possibly also why you’re getting more of this stuff, too.

The built-in Apple XProtect anti-malware does pretty well for malware based on available evidence, and can scan your device in combination with the app store scanning and some other security-related mechanisms.

Here is some useful reading→Avoid phishing emails, fake ‘virus‘ alerts, phony support calls, and other scams

Why do you think you have a virus? What are the indications of compromise here? What are the particular misbehaviors?

Malware does exist for iPhone, but has so far been very rare, and very targeted, based on available evidence.

Investigative journalists, dissidents, those with access to great wealth or to sensitive or classified data, those of interest to very rich and powerful, if you’re among those groups, you’ll want more specialized security advice, and preferably tailored to your situation.

For most of us, the built-in scanning tools and protective mechanisms, and the app store, make malware very rare. The usual way we get in trouble is with known or re-used or compromised passwords or passcodes, no two-factor, phishing, and other schemes. Not with a breach of our device security, based on what is known of those.

Your phone does not have a virus. There are no known viruses in the wild that can infect an iphone that has not been jailbroken.

ajackiv wrote:

My iPhone 13 would beg to differ. It was absolutely infected with malware.

Bad on available evidence, malware is rare, and targeted.

What are the issues, errors, or diagnostics being encountering?

What is the battery health percentage presently?

Any add-on first-few-hops VPN client apps, or add-on anti-malware apps, or other such apps installed here?

I get tons of stuff everyday saying I have 5 viruses on my iPhone. I have tried all different virus programs that are supposed to work on my iPhone but it never gets rid of it. They say my phone is sending out tons of sms messages a day. I don’t see them but I sure have to delete a lot of junk daily. Takes up a lot of time.

MrHoffman wrote:

Malware for iPhone does exist, it’s been rare and targeted based on available info, but those folks don’t need to tell you about it, they just go do whatever it is that they have spent vast sums in exploits and exploit tooling to be able to do.

And it’s worth noting that such spyware is completely invisible to the user, so if you have it you won’t know it’s there unless you have a cybersecurity expert inspect your phone. Thus, any time you have unusual symptoms you can be sure it isn’t caused by spyware.

Hi there,

If you’re running the latest official iOS version (ie, you don’t have a jailbroken iPhone), your iPhone cannot be infected by any viruses. You definitely don’t have to worry about that.

My iPhone 13 would beg to differ. It was absolutely infected with malware.