Android's Security Problems Get Worse, Apple Avoids Attacks
posted Saturday Aug 27, 2011 by Scott Ertz
We've talked in the past about Android's Marketplace and overall security problems, and it seems they are not getting better. In fact, Google's attack rate has grown 76% in the past quarter. This is not surprising considering the platform's popularity.
For decades Apple has touted their lack of malware on their computer systems. The case, however, has never come down to the fact that Apples are incapable of being attacked, but instead on the fact that no one owned them and therefore there was no point in attacking them, though that has changed some. Google's platform has become the most popular mobile platform, like Windows for computers, and therefore it has become the platform to attack.
Why has Apple remained unaffected? Hit the break to find out.
As far as mobile is concerned, though, Apple has not had the lack of success they have had in the computer business. Being one of the top smartphone platforms, it is more than a little surprising that there were no reported attacks on Apple's iOS platform at all. This could mean one of a couple things. First, Apple's entirely closed ecosystem might be playing to their advantage. Not knowing anything about how the platform works plus a deep, covert, extensive app approval process has kept the platform secure.
A closed marketplace doesn't explain why there have been no email or website attacks, though. The closed ecosystem, however, might. Not knowing how the OS works at all might be preventing the external attacks. Keeping the API as closed as it is has prevented people from knowing exactly how to attack the platform and get at the data inside.
Of course, there are other ways to get data off of an iOS device, like fake charging stations in malls, etc, but that requires a complete lack of intelligence on the user's end, so it doesn't count here. My guess is that as more of the iOS is exposed through hackers, we will start to see some malware designed for it. That is, of course, assuming Apple's platform isn't the next casualty of the patent war and Google's momentum.
