iOS versus Android – which phones are the safest?

Cyber ​​security specialists Aaron Turner and Georgia Weidman discussed mobile phone security at the San Francisco RSA conference. Two of the topics addressed were two-factor authentication and biometrics as security methods. The two issued a series of warnings and compared iOS versus Android phones.

Experts have pointed out that authentication applications such as Google Authenticator generally offer better security than SMS-based schemes. However, any means of security depends on the quality of the devices running them.

iOS versus Android – which phones are the safest?

Turner contradicted the myth that iPhones are safer than Android devices, and warned that the safest operating system is iOS 13. Among Android smartphones, he praised Pixel devices and said he “had good experiences with Motorola.” and Nokia Android One. ”

“IOS is still good, but Android SELinux is a major issue for me, as my role is to discover vulnerabilities,”

said Weidman.

Turner agreed with this conclusion:

“We charge three times more for a pentest Android than we charge for an iOS.”

He also warned that Samsung phones are not among the safest:

“Karsten Nohl showed that Samsung falsified the device updates last year. Stop buying their phones. ”

However, the authors of the study cited by Turner later acknowledged that some of their findings were incorrect.

Biometrics is not a magic solution for security

The two experts have acknowledged that they are not supporters of biometrics. Weidman said fingerprint readers and facial recognition are “better than nothing when used in addition to passwords.”

Turner was more skeptical:

“I am fundamentally against the use of biometrics because it is not revocable.”

He cited a case where a group of criminals cut off a man’s finger to gain access to his fingerprint-protected phone.

According to Turner, the only two-factor authentication method without security vulnerabilities discovered is a hardware security key.

Expert points of view need to be considered, in the context of cryptocurrency holders becoming a favorite target of hackers. Last week, an investor claimed that over $ 30 million had been stolen from BCH and BTC by compromising his mobile phone.