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Your Smartphone Is Safer Than Your PC — For Now

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the ominous-chords-go-here dept.

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Galen Gruman reports on the future of mobile security — one that will see a significant rise in exploits as valuable information increasingly migrates to mobile devices. To date, sandboxing and code-signing have helped make mobile OSes relatively secure, when compared with their desktop brethren. But as devices store more valuable information than email, they will become more enticing to hackers currently breaking into Windows PCs. And the biggest bulls-eye appears to be on Android, in large part because its architecture is most like that of the desktop PC but also because there are so many variants in use — too many for Google or the carriers to patch securely. And as the PDF-jailbreak vulnerability showed, sandboxing has its limits when it comes to securing the browser — the most likely point of entry for exploits not due to the rise of extensions, helper objects, and plug-ins on the mobile Web."

7 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Irrelevant to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have a stupid phone.

  2. Are variants a bad thing? by DrXym · · Score: 4, Insightful
    And the biggest bulls-eye appears to be on Android, in large part because its architecture is most like that of the desktop PC but also because there are so many variants in use -- too many for Google or the carriers to patch securely.

    So if an exploit occurs it will likely only affect some handsets as opposed to every handset.

    1. Re:Are variants a bad thing? by John+Hasler · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So if an exploit occurs it will likely only affect some [Android] handsets as opposed to every handset.

      But the scary news stories will omit that little detail.

      --
      Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  3. Android less secure? by cyber-vandal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Windows is an easy target because it's a huge badly-secured monoculture. How does having several different versions of Android to attack make it similarly insecure?

    1. Re:Android less secure? by bsDaemon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The mistake of letting users interact with them. Users are the number one security flaw in any system.

  4. Re:And the first ones out of the gate will be easy by node+3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People have been saying this about the Mac for a decade now, too. I'm glad I didn't hold my breath waiting for this supposed apocalyptic day of comeuppance...

  5. Re:And the first ones out of the gate will be easy by recoiledsnake · · Score: 4, Funny

    The real reason is that malware authors cannot afford Macs :)

    --
    This space for rent.