[malanis5]

So BlackBerry's leading advantage over other smart phones is its security features. Any time i hear something positive about BlackBerry it's usually in reference to how secure the device is.

Does anyone have practical examples of this "security" feature? I'm a regular user, not a corporate company.

I've never heard of anyone getting a virus on their iPhone or Android devices. I've never heard of iPhone or Android devices being hacked to steal personal information remotely.

I just want to learn about how my BlackBerry is so secure.

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[Chanlion]

Ohhh, this sounds like a bait thread but I won't diss out the competition yet.
Security comes from a whole bunch of different aspects.
Better encryption, more locked in profiles, sandboxing and in BlackBerry, signing keys.
I don't think you'll hear about every piece of information that adds to security because part of security is being in those shadows. Information regarding security is kept locked. Same how spy agencies around the world operate with our your knowledge.
This isn't a diss but I have run into malware on Android, they come mostly from pirated apps.

This is just a general idea, I'm pretty sure someone else will go into detail. It is more secure but to explain it and truly understand why, you'll have to, in addition, indulge into the programming level of it.

[Richard Buckley]

If you probably haven't been reading, or listening, in the right places. The mainstream press believes that the average user doesn't really care about security. And for the most part they are right. The information is out there if you look for it: Android spyware infections on the rise - Computerworld

The main reason BlackBerry is secure, or at least more secure, is because security is one of the primary design goals. It is always easier to build security in than it is to add it later. This has resulted in an OS that is much more robust against attempts to get super user privilege, rooting or jail breaking. If you can download a program the will jail break your iOS device, or root your Android device, a malicious programmer could use the same techniques to gain super user privileges and do what ever they wanted to do with your device and hide their tracks as they were doing so. This is no different than a privilege escalation attack on a PC.

But malicious applications often don't need to have special privileges. Ever wonder why a flashlight application needs to have access the the network, contact information, device identification data, etc? Often these applications will quietly steal data from the device and upload it to a server. That brings us to the security of the echo system. Google will remove applications from Play when they are informed that they are behaving badly, but they don't do a particularly good job of scanning them for malicious action first. Apple does a better job, but BlackBerry does arguably has the best echo system security of the three. Chanlion mentioned signing keys. That is one part of the system. More sensitive capabilities, like long running headless applications, or Hub integration, require special signing keys. The user can pick and choose which permissions to authorize for an application. A native BB10 application will usually still run with all required permissions denied. Though it may not be able to perform all functions. I routinely decline to give device identification, or contact information permissions to applications.

Most people probably have no idea they have an application that is harvesting data off their phone.

[Lostfile]

I'd actually like to hear more about this also, as I'm not on BES either. I do know that the file encryption and sandboxed Android runtime helps, but what else?

However, saying that you've never heard of an attack on Android phones is a little far-fetched, OP. Did you not hear of the recent flashlight app stealing Whatsapp conversations?

[Cavi Mike]

This is why BlackBerry is more secure. Even if Android an iOS do have these features, they sure don't pop up when you first install an app and give you the choice to disable them before the app runs.

[scrapmetal58]

A few things that help make a BlackBerry the most secure (even for those not on BES10) is that BlackBerry 10 phones can be encrypted, including the SD card, there aren't any security holes (like the non-stop lock screen bypass bugs that the iPhone has had), BlackBerry screens apps better than Google, Android apps are sandboxed (basically separated from the rest of the OS), and some data is still routed through BlackBerry's servers (like BBM, for example).

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[scrannel]

Not that long ago Saudi and India threatened to shut BBerry down in their countries because with BBerry they couldn't read people's text, emails etc., as they easily could on iOS and Android. Now, these were the days of BIS, but BES is still alive. Here's an interesting article.

How the NSA could bail out BlackBerry