Your Smartphone Is Safer Than Your PC — For Now 125
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."
Re:This is why I prefer my BB (Score:0, Informative)
If I were to go on security alone, I'd go with BB, then Windows Mobile. After that, the N900, and after that, the iPhone then Android.
Android really needs file encryption to be able to be a useful candidate in the enterprise market. RIM devices have this, Windows Mobile has had it since 6.0, and the iPhone has encryption for a few things. Android only encrypts apps on the SD card.
Re:Are variants a bad thing? (Score:4, Informative)
The wierd thing is, why can't Google pull an Apple? The iPhone gets updates from Apple, leaving out the carrier middleman, even if the user is paying a contract on the iPhone.
Because Android is an open platform. The carriers take Android, mold it to fit their needs, and put it on their phones. Google, or rather the Open Handset Alliance, doesn't have any say on it. That's how carriers can get away with modifying the source of the Hotspot app to only work if the customer pays extra.
This is the downside to GPLv2. The Tivoization loophole means that carriers can do this, release the source, and you still can't (necessarily) modify the source and put it on your phone.
Google started taking steps to address some of this by moving more of their apps to the app store, but you still have issues with system libraries and the kernel. Without root, an app can't update these.
Re:Irrelevant to me (Score:4, Informative)
your girlfriend
You know this is Slashdot, right?
One print page for InfoWorld article. (Score:3, Informative)
http://infoworld.com/print/135570 [infoworld.com] ... You're welcome! :)