ANTI VIRUS SHIELD GUARD LAUNCHED FOR iPAD

Bangalore: Intego, company which provide security solution for Mac, has come up with first antivirus scanner capable of inspecting Apple's iPad. But security experts around the world doubt the need of an antivirus for iPad.

The operating system used on iPad is same as on iPhone and so far only few security issues has been reported on jailbroken iPhones and even then only by a handful of high-profile worms, such as the Rickrolling worm in Australia and the D'oh bank credential stealing worm in the Netherlands, which both spread last November, according to The Register.

Whether either of these worms might be capable of infecting an iPad is unclear. Intego acknowledges there is no iPad malware to defend against as yet but argues it will be ready if and when the threat materialises. "We're not saying there is malware in the wild," Peter James, an Intego spokesman explained. "But there are exploits that can take advantage of vulnerabilities."

James explained that the malware risk on the iPad, such as it is, mainly applies to devices that have been jailbroken to run apps not approved by Apple. Users of these devices can download cracked software that might pose a malware risk, or they could be exposed to future potential iPad-specific drive-by-download attacks while surfing online.

"Jailbreaking takes advantages of vulnerabilities," James told The Register. "Those users who don't jailbreak their devices have fewer security risks because they are protected by sandboxing. Jailbroken devices are not protected in same way.

"If and when iPad malware arrives we have the engine ready". But there are certain problems that the company has to solve as well. "The software doesn't run on an iPad or iPhone itself. We're looking forward to multi-tasking that will make this possible and in the mean time offering the best we can," James said. "We can't detect things live but its the best compromise we can offer for now."