Apple has done a good job of keeping malware and viruses out of their OS’s on both Mac and iOS. While malware incidence has indeed been low on both Mac and iOS, Mac OS X anti-malware maker Intego has released VirusBarrier for iOS, a malware scanner for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Based on the award-winning technology of Intego’s Mac OS X anti-malware tool, VirusBarrier X6, VirusBarrier iOS allows users of iOS devices to scan files attached to e-mail messages in the cloud for malware that could affect Macs or Windows PCs. VirusBarrier scans places where malware is the likeliest to be stored at, such as the user’s Dropbox folder, as well as Mail attachments and other locations within iOS that are directly exposed to users. This tool is an on-demand scanner, meaning that it doesn’t run in the background due to the nature of iOS’ multi-tasking (or lack thereof), therefore users will have to manually scan files from the app itself or by pressing and holding the link to any file and selecting “Open in VirusBarrier”. VirusBarrier iOS offers the following features on demand: Scans of files received by e-mail, on remote locations, or on iOS devices Scans files for Mac, Windows and Unix viruses and malware Scans files for spyware, Trojan horses, adware, hacker tools, dialers, keyloggers and more Scans ZIP archives Repairs infected files Scans email attachments*, files downloaded from Safari*, and files accessed by applications supporting inter-app file transfers*. Scans remote locations in the cloud, such as Dropbox, iDisks and WebDav disks Scans websites for known phishing URLs, web threats, and malware hosting Automatically updates malware definitions Completes scans in the background Keeps logs of scans Includes a 1-year subscription to Intego’s market-leading malware definitions, generally updated twice a week (more if there are immediate threats discovered) * Supported formats for inter-app file transfer: Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, PDFs, HTML files, JavaScript files, Windows executables (.exe), Windows .dll files, and others. You may now be wondering about the need for an anti-malware application on an iOS device, since after all no software that hasn’t been reviewed by Apple can run on the system (unless you’ve jailbroken it, of course). It turns out that the main goal of this app is to stop infected files from ending up on more vulnerable systems, as explained by the company in a press release: While there is no known malware for iOS, files can flow through these devices into computers at home and at work by e-mail, or via remote locations such as MobileMe or Dropbox. Mac and Windows viruses, malware and worms will take any path they can to get into home and work computers, and can easily be passed on to friends and co-workers directly from an iOS device, even though they do not affect iOS devices. VirusBarrier is, of course, equipped to detect Windows, Mac and Unix viruses, therefore expect its virus definitions to be updated quite often. VirusBarrier can be downloaded from the iOS App Store for $2.99, which will grant you free detection updates for a year. From that point, you’ll have to purchase a license again for an additional $1.99 every year. Let us know in the comments below if you decide to try this app. And, as usual, stay tuned for more news and info by following us on Facebook, Twitter and/or by subscribing to our RSS Feed. Read more Authors: