'Virus-scanning' iOS apps have always been a scam. Now Apple is finally cracking down

Misleading iOS "security" apps are about to be a thing of the past.

Apple has updated its developer guidelines with a new policy that bans deceptive "virus-scanning" apps for the first time.

From the latest App Store guidelines:

A quick search of the App Store also suggests that Apple has been quietly removing many of the apps that purport to have such capabilities, as search terms like "virus scanner" and "malware finder" no longer turn up results for these types of apps. 

As the company notes in its guidelines, it's incredibly misleading for apps to advertise themselves as having these types of features. Not because it's impossible for malicious code to find its way into the App Store (though rare, it has happened), but because Apple's developer policies make it literally impossible for any third-party app to identify such malicious code in the first place. Read more...