Symantec this week published “A Window Into Mobile Device Security: Examining the security approaches employed in Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android“, an in-depth, technical evaluation of Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile platforms, to help organizations understand the security risks of deploying these devices in the enterprise.
Discoveries showed that while iOS and Android were designed with security in mind, these provisions are not always sufficient to protect sensitive company data that regularly ends up on these connected devices. Complicating matters, today’s mobile devices are increasingly being connected to and synchronized with an entire ecosystem of 3rd-party cloud and desktop-based services outside the enterprise’s control, potentially exposing key enterprise assets to increased risk.
Symantec’s research provides a detailed analysis of the security models employed by Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms, evaluating each platform’s effectiveness against today’s major threats, including:
• Web-based and network-based attacks
• Malware
• Social engineering attacks
• Resource and service availability abuse
• Malicious and unintentional data loss
• Attacks on the integrity of the device’s data
This analysis has led to Symantec to some important conclusions:
• While offering improved security over traditional desktop-based operating systems, both iOS and Android are still vulnerable to many existing categories of attacks.
• iOS’s security model offers strong protection against traditional malware, primarily due to Apple’s rigorous app certification process and their developer certification process, which vets the identity of each software author and weeds out attackers.
• Google has opted for a less rigorous certification model, permitting any software developer to create and release apps anonymously, without inspection. This lack of certification has arguably led to today’s increasing volume of Android-specific malware.
• Users of both Android and iOS devices regularly synchronize their devices with 3rd-party cloud services (e.g., web-based calendars) and with their home desktop computers. This can potentially expose sensitive enterprise data stored on these devices to systems outside the governance of the enterprise.
• Increasing use of “jailbroken” devices, or devices whose security has been disabled, offer attractive targets for attackers since these devices are every bit as vulnerable as traditional PCs.
“Today’s mobile devices are a mixed bag when it comes to security,” said Carey Nachenberg, Symantec Fellow and Chief Architect, Symantec Security Technology and Response. “While more secure than traditional PCs, these platforms are still vulnerable to many traditional attacks. Moreover, enterprise employees are increasingly using unmanaged, personal devices to access sensitive enterprise resources, and then connecting these devices to 3rd-party services outside of the governance of the enterprise, potentially exposing key assets to attackers.”
The full report is available here as a free PDF download with no registration required.
