According to Sunnyvale, Calif.-based security research firm Zscaler, which has been testing the feature since its release, the problem is the method Apple updates its blacklist of malicious sites, a report said.
Apple uses Google’s desktop edition of the SafeBrowsing application programming interface to build its list of blocked phishing and malware sites, which may not translate consistently on the iPhone, Zcaler’s Vice President Michael Sutton said.
Peter James, a spokesperson for Mac-only antivirus vendor Intego wrote in a blog, that the the anti-fraud feature just doesn’t work.
"We have extensively tested this feature, tossing dozens of phishing URLs at it, and it simply does not seem to work,” James said. “URLs that are blocked by Safari in Mac OS X open and direct users to malicious pages [on the iPhone]."
