This sounds like a slightly strange decision by Apple: they'll not let Kaspersky develop anti-viral tools for iOS. Kaspersky himself thinks that this is one of the things that will enable Google's Android to leapfrog Apple. There are going to be some infections or malware at some point and without preparation such could be disastrous.
Eugene Kaspersky is “a little bit disappointed … Apple won’t let us” develop antivirus software for iOS devices, as he feels it is only a matter of time before criminals target the operating system.
“We as a security company are not able to develop true endpoint security for iOS,” Kaspersky told The Register in Sydney today. “That will mean disaster for Apple,” he opined, as malware will inevitably strike iOS in the future.
The argument is a development of the one about why Macs are not infested with or attacked by viruses and trojans as often as Windows machines. The OS is generally more secure (or at least was more secure although Microsoft has done an awful lot over the years to catch up) than Windows but the real reason that the same attacks did not occur was simply that there weren't that many Macs out there. We use the word virus deliberately to make the analogy with disease bearing vectors and in the absence of a sufficiently large number of hosts epidemics and pandemics simply die out. This is how vaccination works: we don't need 100% of the population to be immune, only 90-95%.
But if Macs make up only 2 or 4% of the computer population then any virus that infects them sees all the Windows machines as being vaccinated. Thus the platform simply wasn't a tempting target for the virus writers.
Obviously this is entirely different with the stunning success of iOS based devices. And the point that Kaspersky is making is that Google will allow access to the details of the OS and thus preparations can be made in designing and building the tools necessary when infections do start to appear. Apple won't and thus:
The result of an attack on iOS, he feels, will be declining market share for Apple and a concomitant boost for Android, a platform he admits is less secure but which at least offers developers the chance to develop security software. A severe attack, Kaspersky argues, therefore has the potential to highlight the problems of a closed ecosystem and damage Apple permanently.
I wouldn't say that I'm entirely sold on the thesis but it does seem puzzling that Apple won't allow the access necessary to do the development work.
