Amid the news of Google approving third-party payment systems on its app store in South Korea, it seems that the alternate option for iPhone, i.e. sideloading apps, won’t open up soon as Apple’s VP Craig Federighi has announced that “sideloading is a cybercriminal’s best friend.” Craig, who delivered a dramatic speech at Web Summit 2021, has revealed that allowing sideloading apps on iPhone would “floodgates” to malware.

Unlike macOS, Apple doesn’t allow sideloading apps on iOS and iPadOS. Apple has defended the situation by saying that allowing sideloading apps on iPhone would open iOS to many vulnerabilities. During the keynote, Federighi, again, defended Apple’s mark by saying that due to not allowing sideloading on iPhone, the operating system has a relatively low rate of malware in comparison to “5 million Android attacks per month.”

While taking a dig at the European Commission’s proposed Digital Markets Act, Craig drew a parallel with “great home with a really great security system.” He said that consider if you buy a “safe house” but then you discover there’s a “fatal flaw” in its security system, and “burglars are really good at exploiting it.” Similarly, opening up sideloading on iPhone will open up “one of the most secure smartphones in the world” to the world of malware.

At the keynote, Craig said, “As an engineer who wants iPhone to stay as secure as possible for our users, there is one part I worry about and that’s the provision that would require iPhone to allow sideloading. In the name of giving users more choice, that one provision would take away consumers’ choice of a more secure platform. All of this comes at a time where people are keeping more personal and sensitive information than ever on their iPhones. And I can tell you there have never been cybercriminals more determined to get your hands on it.”

When asked about giving users an option to “choose” to sideload apps, Craig said:

“Clearly, I’m no fan of sideloading, but I want to address an argument I hear a lot: ‘Let people choose whether or not to sideload. Let them judge the risks, and they can decide themselves.’ And it’s easy to see the attraction of this argument, but history shows us that it doesn’t play out the way we’d hope because even if you have no intention of sideloading, people are routinely coerced or tricked into doing it. And that’s true across the board, even on platforms like Android that sideloading somewhat difficult to do.”

Via: The Verge