Experts: Apple right to lock down Apple iPhone

Experts: Apple right to lock down Apple iPhone

Security experts have agreed with the Apple’s decision to lockdown their upcoming Apple iPhone mobile product.

Symantec researcher Eric Chien said in a blog post that a locked phone is less prone to getting infected with mobile platform viruses and worms. He said: “If the iPhone remains a closed device, with not even Java applications or widgets let alone native code, the risk of infection becomes orders of magnitude lower.”

He was responding to Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ statement on locking down the iPhone from third party applications: “These are devices that need to work. And you can’t do that if you load any software on them. It doesn’t mean we have to write it all, but it means it has to be more of a controlled environment.”

However, it is very likely that mobile hackers would find ways to unlock the device enabling users to install third party applications. That could potentially result in a situation where Apple iPhone could become a vulnerable device.

Chien added in the blog post: “Will malicious software exist? Probably. But the amount of malicious software will definitely not be on the scale it is today with Windows and will not reach the levels of malware for current mobile devices.”