Yea and nay :-)

The number of viruses on the Internet is underestimated. As a matter of fact, it is technically possible to get one while searching with an iPhone. However, we would like to reassure you that most iPhone users never face that problem.

The answer of “Yes” to the question is more legitimate than it is practical. Well, it can literally happen, but in practice, the chance is rather infinitesimal. The viruses for iPhones were created by virus researchers.

In practice, they have no chance of reaching the Internet. They are of the worm type and are not likely to damage your device as long as it has not been jailbroken.

Still, you may wish to protect your iPhone with some sort of protection software.

That will be unnecessary. The viruses that could technically, but not really, attack an iPhone really only exist to prove the possibility of their existence.

A virus must take a long path to get to your computer. For example, it might be sent to the iPhone via SMS, and it takes 512 SMSs to infect your computer. It won't work as long as a single one of them is missing. To protect your iPhone from this virus, just don't forget to turn the iPhone off when you expect a long period out of a network zone, for example, when going on long flights.

It is worth noting that the frightening stories about iPhones viruses are only that scary because they are that mystical. Most of the storytellers have not personally faced the situations in their stories.

So, the possibility of an attack depends mainly of the user’s behavior.

In the event that one turns to protection software to protect their iPhone, their search results will not provide them with much information. In October of 2011, the App Store did not suggest any antivirus programs at all. There are some programs that contain the word “antivirus” in their names. These programs are designed to check out viruses in attachments, which can never affect your iPhone.

There are some applications developed by McAfee, a well-known security company, but they are not released yet and exist only for internal use. There is also an application for secure browsing released by Trend Micro, but it is not an antivirus program. As for Symantec, they do not offer anything at all.

A fair conclusion is that antivirus software for the iPhone is not a major area of business, at least not for now.