Blinded By the Smartphone Glitz: is Security on Your Must-have Features List?

Computerworld — When my cell phone started acting strange last week, I decided it was a good time to get a new one. I had several features in mind that I felt were essential, and the only phone I could find that had all of them was a Droid. Against my better judgment, I said I would take it.

Slideshow: Mobile Security: How Gadgets Evolved

As a security professional, it took a lot to ignore the voice in my head that was yelling, "No, don't do it!" Phones with the Android operating system don't thrill me. Besides the growing proliferation of malware for the operating system, Android phones are required to back up to a cloud-based service that we hear is regularly compromised. It's no stretch to say that Android is the most insecure operating system for phones right now.

When it comes to operating systems, I normally reject labels like "most secure" and "least secure." My view is that the most secure operating system is the one you know how to maintain best. But things are different in the mobile world. There is generally little you can do on your own to make a smartphone operating system more secure. So many apps -- and so poorly vetted. It is becoming very easy, and much more common, for malware to creep onto a smartphone. Meanwhile, anti-malware software for mobile platforms barely exists and is woefully inadequate. Just about the only thing that the average user can do to avoid the bad stuff is to swear off downloading apps entirely. But in the real world, who wants a smartphone with no apps on it?

So, what can you do? With any operating system, security is a continuing process. The problem with Android is that security is more continual than for most. You need to constantly stay aware of the latest attacks and vulnerabilities and implement the patches as quickly as possible. That of course assumes that there are patches available. I don't know about you, but I don't have time to constantly stay on top of these issues -- nor the patience to worry about zero day vulnerabilities.

These are issues with every mobile platform out there. But, having attended several presentations at Black Hat, and after talking to security colleagues who track this issue, I have concluded that Apple's iOS and the BlackBerry are better choices from a security perspective. That hasn't stopped the Android from becoming the most popular mobile operating system in the world, with projections for continued dominance . And guess what -- with popularity comes more attacks tailored specifically for No. 1.

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