iPads and porn [SFW] - resistance to hazards? (virus, spyware, trojans, etc)

[The Stig]

Was wondering, how resistant is the iPad to porn, because as anticipated, my dad has already begun using it browse softcore stuff. Won't take long to find hardcore stuff, but (no pun intended) I do not wish to clean up after him if the iPads gonna be riddled with viruses and whatnot. Although I've not seen (not really looked) "virus scanner apps" but I was wondering how safe is it, overall.

Family is kinda unable to use mouse/keyboard, so the iPad is actually perfect for them which is why they brought it.

[Isiolia]

Generally going to be pretty safe, unless someone finds/deploys an exploit designed to attack it.

Realistically though, part of the reason that Apple does things how they do with the iOS devices is to prevent malicious code from getting on them. It's about as likely as getting malware on a PS3 - probably not going to happen if he doesn't jailbreak it (and even then...).

[Kylewhataru]

Unlikely to happen, even on a mac you have to bust your ass off to actually find something that will infect your PC, and iOS is more closed.

[The Stig]

Thanks, that's good to know!

Jailbreak will never happen. I've maintained that if they wish to plant illegal things on it, they'll have to learn how to do it themselves, as I've grown out of fiddling with handheld devices and trying to run all sorts of magical things on it.

EDIT: So glad the family has decided NOT to purchase another laptop/desktop. That would make life hellish. (Remember, they do not know about this stuff in general, so if something says FREE whatever, they will click on it for sure)

[orinthia]

I do recall there was a pdf exploit for iOS sometime ago. Essentially, this exploit would give full access to the device, and was even used in a browser based jailbreaking tool (visit that website, click, wait, broken). Not sure if it's been patched yet but do be careful of opening foreign pdfs in iOS.

There shouldn't be much else, but there's always the social engineering aspect (ads and such disguised as other things to elicit clicks). As long as there's nothing too important on the device and they don't start plunking down their credit card numbers everywhere, there shouldn't be much to worry about any time soon. Just look into adblockers for the thing's browser, or alternative browsers that support ad blocking. I've browsed the internet ad-filtered for so many years that it's almost shocking when I surf on someone else's unfiltered comp...

[DAKPluto]

The one thing jailbreak.me proved is that the idevices are very capable of being virused, hacked, etc.

The big thing is, how many do we expect to see? Answer, hardly any. Just not enough reason to implant viruses for idevices. Nowhere near the return of infecting PCs. Same reason Apple has been "more safe" in the area. Not that Apples are really any safer, it's just that 500 billion people use Windows over Apple. Again, not enough reward in going after Apples.

[wyrmtung]

Is it just me and my Catholic upbringing or does anyone else find it weird to help your father to browse porn on the net?

[Mayareira]

Men...

[The Stig]

Is it just me and my Catholic upbringing or does anyone else find it weird to help your father to browse porn on the net?

Nah I'm not helping at all, not even mentioned it, but the fact he went to some "lingerie/bikini" site hints to me that with enough basic searching on Google it'll eventually lead him there.