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Ask Slashdot: Most Secure Mobile OS?

Posted by timothy on from the much-more-secure-before-out-of-the-box dept.

Lexta writes "So I'm contemplating my next smartphone purchase, and I've been a little put off by all of the security exploits posted on Slashdot over the last few months, particularly for Android. So, what's the most secure stock standard (not jailbroken) mobile OS?"

3 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The Most Secure Mobile OS by MasterMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is true for the same reasons that a decade ago Mac OSX was considered more secure than Windows. Its a function of install base. As soon as Windows Phone has 100's of million of users exploits will be published.

    You mean Linux itself isn't better security wise either, it's just that the (desktop) market share is so low?

  2. Whats your threat model? by nweaver · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What is your threat model? Do you use it for websurfing? Download lots of kewl apps? For the latter, from which app store?

    I suspect that iOS is a bit more vulnerable on the web browser side, as android has a fair bit better sandboxing which means an exploit of the browser takes more work to fully p0wn the phone, while in iOS-land, 'p0wn the brower == p0wn the phone'

    But OTOH, Apple is a much better curator: with only the official App store, and with bad-actor app-developers and apps a rarity, the Apple App Store is very safe.

    Android? Not so much. Even the official Google store seems to rely too much on the Android sandboxing to keep users safe (when users just say 'ok' to anything needing scary permissions), and other App Stores are a vile abomination.

    Finally, anything that doesn't say "Nexus" on it should be considered end-of-lifed before you buy it. Apple patches things for a long time, so old vulnerabilites shouldn't worry their user base. But Android phones, since they are pretty much EOL'ed right from the start, often never receive critical browser and related security patches, security patches which, due to the open nature, can pretty much be reverse engineered by a competent exploit developer.

    So, my ranking: Nexus Phone > (slightly) iPhone >>> generic "Android" phone

    --
    Test your net with Netalyzr
  3. Re:No answer for you by narcc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A corporate-based phone (Blackberry) is going to make corporate security more of a priority than usability

    I haven't noticed any problems with usability. Quite the opposite, in fact.

    Security doesn't "get in the way" at all on the platform.

    --
    Required reading for internet skeptics