Can an Ipod Touch get a virus?

shopaholic_09

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but users of this website have helped me out before with techie stuff and I was hoping you could answer this question for me.

I've just been browsing the internet on my ipod touch and got one of those pop-ups that appear usually when you're on the computer. It was some fake security thing saying something like you should scan your computer, when I wasn't even using my computer. I pressed the home button as I didn't want to click OK on the pop-up and then when I went back into the safari browser, I just opened a new window and deleted the cookies and cache.

What I just wanted to know was, will it have affected my ipod touch in any way? it looked like it was for a computer but I just want to check before I sign into any of my accounts on my ipod or before I plug it back into the computer. I would hate to transfer a virus, if that is even possible. Again, I apologise for the stupid questions but I just thought it was better to check these things out first.

spg_SCOTT

As far as I'm aware, I wouldn't have thought so. The scanning would eventually try to get you to download a rogue, but since the touch can't run exe then it wouldn't work.

A similar incident: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=59903

shopaholic_09

Thanks. So it should be safe to plug it back into my computer and to sign into any of my accounts using the ipod now? I did try searching but some people say you can get viruses on them and some people say you cant.

I didn't realise you could still get pop-ups like that on an ipod and I was worried about something bad being on it now that would have transfered over to my Windows PC.

CrazyClum

The iPod Touch uses Apple's iOS, the same as the iPhone and iPad, and there is no known virus (as of yet) for the iOS system according to Apple.

Although, ensure you update your iTouch when required (Apple have recently released iOS 4.1), by connecting your device to your PC/Mac and opening iTunes.

Apple products running MacOS rarely get viruses or malware, in the industry they are known as 'virus proof'. I've had a Mac, iPhone and iPad at various points over the last five years and never had a virus, or any spyware etc.

HTH

shopaholic_09

CrazyClum wrote: »

The iPod Touch uses Apple's iOS, the same as the iPhone and iPad, and there is no known virus (as of yet) for the iOS system according to Apple.

Although, ensure you update your iTouch when required (Apple have recently released iOS 4.1), by connecting your device to your PC/Mac and opening iTunes.

Apple products running MacOS rarely get viruses or malware, in the industry they are known as 'virus proof'. I've had a Mac, iPhone and iPad at various points over the last five years and never had a virus, or any spyware etc.

HTH

Is it worth updating it to 4.1 if it's a 2nd Gen? I've heard people say that it slows it down so much and that they wished they hadn't updated it. I think mine is still on 2.2.1.

The_Grandmaster

Can you not connect the ipod touch to your computer and run a virus scan on that drive?

shopaholic_09

I don't know how to scan an ipod. What would I need to do? If it did have a virus on there, wouldn't it then infect my computer if it was connected. That's what I'm worried about.

davester

The only way to get a virus onto an Ipod is to use jail break and get infected. There is a virus around and it steals your bank details from a certain jailbreak program.

gaming_guy

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The_Grandmaster

What antivirus do you have on your computer?

I would make sure the computer is free from infections (virus scan and run a malwarebytes scan etc.)

Then connect the ipod touch. If you have a decent antivirus, even if your computer does get infected, it should catch it either when it gets found or during a scan.

shopaholic_09

My ipod has never been jailbroken. The only things on it are apps, mainly games, that I bought at the app store.

I have Norton Internet Security and I scan with Malwarebytes too. I haven't tried connecting the ipod touch to my computer yet but when I do, I'll run both scans afterwards just to check. I'm starting to think now that it was just some scam. I mean, it said it wanted to scan my computer but it wasn't an actual computer and I didn't click ok anyway, so I don't think it could have done anything. I was just surprised that those pop-ups are possible on something like an ipod.