[nbaliga]

Good report on BBRY:

"Android accounted for 94% of all mobile threats in 2014. Symbian and Windows were found to have zero mobile threats on their platforms*while iOS accounted for 6% of mobile threats. This 94% share of threats is too high, especially for*the dominant player in the smartphone OS market."

As an investor, I would agree with BlackBerry making an Android phone, but they will need to close this gaping hole in their reputation!

BlackBerry Plans 2 Major Product Releases Soon - Market Realist

Posted via CB10

[Ed YANG]

Hmmm... food for thoughts...
Really a tough choice for a company which is known on the security... should they go with re-dressed Android boosted with sword-piercing proof security layers or just standard Android with re-dressed BBOS look... Hmmm... the former will have a hard time to sell, the latter... will sell, but builds bad reputation as well.

[Cynycl]

Good report on BBRY:

"Android accounted for 94% of all mobile threats in 2014. Symbian and Windows were found to have zero mobile threats on their platforms*while iOS accounted for 6% of mobile threats. This 94% share of threats is too high, especially for*the dominant player in the smartphone OS market."

As an investor, I would agree with BlackBerry making an Android phone, but they will need to close this gaping hole in their reputation!

BlackBerry Plans 2 Major Product Releases Soon - Market Realist

Posted via CB10

There's a reason why.

IDC: Smartphone OS Market Share 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012

Who's going to waste their time hacking the non existent players. That being said. Name me one person you know that had their phone hacked who didn't download pirated content or apps. Android isn't inherently subject to threats on it's own, the dim witted user is though.

[lnichols]

And people here are clamoring for BlackBerry to adopt Android and dump BB10. Easy to see if BB10 goes away which is will be the next most secure.

Posted via Z30

[katiepea]

is this even remotely surprising? this stat would be true of any OS that has the marketshare Android does. If every single BB device was infected with malware, it wouldn't even make news the userbase is so small. Same reason there's more security issues on Windows than other platforms. Also malware doesn't make an OS less secure, you can't account for human stupidity which is the cause of nearly every single case of malware. It's just as easy to load a malware app on a BB device.

[Cashgap]

There's a reason why.

IDC: Smartphone OS Market Share 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012

Who's going to waste their time hacking the non existent players. That being said. Name me one person you know that had their phone hacked who didn't download pirated content or apps. Android isn't inherently subject to threats on it's own, the dim witted user is though.

Agreed, but no surprise that Android is so over-represented relative to their market share, iOS so under-represented. Now we could speculate that it's the quality of the OS or the quality of the users those OS's draw, but it's probably a combination.

[LazyEvul]

From the actual report:

Currently most malicious code for mobile devices consists of Trojans that pose as legitimate applications. These applications are uploaded to mobile application (�app�) marketplaces in the hope that users will download and install them, often trying to pass themselves off as legitimate apps or games. Attackers have also taken popular legitimate applications and added supplementary code to them.

tl;dr: Stick to official marketplaces like Google Play or the Amazon Appstore, and you're likely to be safe - both of them have vetting processes to prevent these things.

It's also pretty interesting to note that out of all the documented vulnerabilities, only 11% of them affected Android (out of a total of 168) - a pretty impressive figure for the most popular OS in the world, though it may simply be indicative of biases in the priorities of security researchers.

The full report can be found here, if you want to comb through more of it: https://www4.symantec.com/mktginfo/w...appendices.pdf

Edit: Just to throw some more information out there, from Google's own report on Android security released in April:

-Fewer than 1% of Android devices had a Potentially Harmful App (PHA, i.e. malware) installed in 2014. Fewer than 0.15% of devices that only install from Google Play had a PHA installed.
-The overall worldwide rate of PHA installs decreased by nearly 50% between Q1 and Q4 2014.
-Android and Android partners responded to 79 externally reported security issues, and over 25,000 applications in Google Play were updated following security notifications from Google Play.

Source: http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot...nion-2014.html

[AnimalPak200]

From the actual report:



tl;dr: Stick to official marketplaces like Google Play or the Amazon Appstore, and you're likely to be safe - both of them have vetting processes to prevent these things.

It's also pretty interesting to note that out of all the documented vulnerabilities, only 11% of them affected Android (out of a total of 168) - a pretty impressive figure for the most popular OS in the world, though it may simply be indicative of biases in the priorities of security researchers.

The full report can be found here, if you want comb through more of it: https://www4.symantec.com/mktginfo/w...appendices.pdf

It's also worth mentioning that there's a few threads here about people having inadvertently installed one of those 'porn clicker' screen blocking apps (that claim to be from the FBI) onto their BlackBerry 10 devices.

Granted, it only affects the Android Runtime (as in, it only blocks the screen when an Android app is open),.. but... wouldn't this count as a hit against BlackBerry since the OS allows it and it clearly is undesirable to the user?

Posted via CB10

[LazyEvul]

It's also worth mentioning that there's a few threads here about people having inadvertently installed one of those 'porn clicker' screen blocking apps (that claim to be from the FBI) onto their BlackBerry 10 devices.

Granted, it only affects the Android Runtime (as in, it only blocks the screen when an Android app is open),.. but... wouldn't this count as a hit against BlackBerry since the OS allows it and it clearly is undesirable to the user?

Posted via CB10

I'd say so, especially since we've had BlackBerry Guardian integrated since OS 10.3 - that should be catching and preventing the installation of such apps, in theory.

[Cynycl]

Agreed, but no surprise that Android is so over-represented relative to their market share, iOS so under-represented. Now we could speculate that it's the quality of the OS or the quality of the users those OS's draw, but it's probably a combination.

Likely more a result that the majority of apple users pay apple for their apps and don't go looking for pirate apps on the wild wild web. Apple is just a better closed system with a better app store.

I can't believe I'm saying this.........I hate Apple

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Prem WatsApp]

Likely more a result that the majority of apple users pay apple for their apps and don't go looking for pirate apps on the wild wild web. Apple is just a better closed system with a better app store.

I can't believe I'm saying this.........I hate Apple

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Ouch... :-)

�   Chendroid or not? - QNoX powered ftw...?   �

[Ment]

Likely more a result that the majority of apple users pay apple for their apps and don't go looking for pirate apps on the wild wild web. Apple is just a better closed system with a better app store.

I can't believe I'm saying this.........I hate Apple

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Apple doesn't have a billions people ala China that doesn't have access to the official app store. Feel sorry for the Chinese, they must deal with malware every day from hackers and the government.

[Yatezy]

Likely more a result that the majority of apple users pay apple for their apps and don't go looking for pirate apps on the wild wild web. Apple is just a better closed system with a better app store.

I can't believe I'm saying this.........I hate Apple

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Also it is far harder to get pirated apps for an iOS device. Most people don't want to go throughout the jail breaking procedure whereas on Android you only have to tick a box on a perfectly stock device.

[bakron1]

I hate to be the bearer of reality, but the average consumer which is about 90% really doesn't give a rats *** about security until they are the victim.

Hackers are going to attack the operating systems the majority is using which is Android and/or iOS at this point in time.

I personally think this is the perfect time to introduce a product that's Android based which has some great security features built into it like a Blackberry skin. I just might be the one thing to woo the consumer back to the brand.

I am just thinking outside of the box which is what you have to do in today's highly competitive market.

[The Big Picture]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/28970...re-tablet.html

Is this a secure android?

I believe it is since it has Nato certification.

To this "android is the most common OS therefore it's the most hacked" arguement.

BlackBerry used to own over 20 percent of the market and they never got hacked but even so, who cares?

The security credibility doesn't resonate with the masses anyways.

All anyone wants is a sexy phone, apps and a user friendly camera.

Posted via CB10

[paulwallace1234]

Haha, the old girl Symbian still hasn't any threats

[AnimalPak200]

Probably because developing those archaic java apps was extremely frustrating... lol

[LazyEvul]

BlackBerry launches $2,300 tablet | PCWorld

Is this a secure android?

I believe it is since it has Nato certification.

To this "android is the most common OS therefore it's the most hacked" arguement.

BlackBerry used to own over 20 percent of the market and they never got hacked but even so, who cares?

The security credibility doesn't resonate with the masses anyways.

All anyone wants is a sexy phone, apps and a user friendly camera.

Posted via CB10

Smartphones were arguably a less lucrative target at the time, however. They weren't anywhere near as central to people's lives until post-iPhone (and even that took a few years to become a reality).

Plus, "never" is a bit of a stretch - you can find a few older security advisories on BlackBerry's own website (look through the "Previous security advisories" section): Incident Response Team - United States

Haha, the old girl Symbian still hasn't any threats

Afraid not, here's a good ol' privilege escalation exploit from way back in 2008: Vulnerability found in the latest Symbian operating system

And a touch of malicious code execution via MMS, from 2009: https://cxsecurity.com/issue/WLB-2009070014

Hacking Team, the surveillance contractor that was hacked yesterday, offers ways to monitor targets using Symbian as well - and that's something that will likely never be fixed, since the platform no longer receives updates.

[nbaliga]

There's a reason why.

IDC: Smartphone OS Market Share 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012

Who's going to waste their time hacking the non existent players. That being said. Name me one person you know that had their phone hacked who didn't download pirated content or apps. Android isn't inherently subject to threats on it's own, the dim witted user is though.

Doesn't matter WHY you get hacked. When you're security conscious, you need it to be secure, period. Blackberry needs to have a good explanation of how they'll keep Android secure if they take this dive with the Slider. It's statistics like this that will immediately take a hit on BBRY in the secure and enterprise markets they are holding on to.

[mornhavon]

Doesn't matter WHY you get hacked. When you're security conscious, you need it to be secure, period.

The WHY most certainly matters. Someone who intentionally disables security functions on their device and installs shady APKs from pirated/untrusted sources should not be described as "security conscious".

Leave the "unknown sources" option off on Android and you're 99.85% sure to never be affected by anything that could be defined as malware. Additionally, either read & understand the permissions that an app is asking for OR simply avoid apps with fewer than 1,000 installs and your chances of staying clean nearly hit 100%.

[Troy Tiscareno]

As the Google report shows, while Android as a whole has a lot of malware, close to zero of it is on Google Play. The overwhelming vast majority of Android malware comes from third-party app stores such as 1mobile, Aptoide, etc. or random websites offering pirated paid apps. To get any of those, you have to manually enable third-party apps, which includes reading and agreeing to a warning.

In other words, it's more-or-less like Windows, where illegal (pirate) porn sites and pirate sites were the primary vectors for malware infections, and where, in most cases, users had to intentionally participate in high-risk activity. Ironically, people here on CB encourage BB users to do exactly this on a regular basis - encouraging the use of third-party app stores like 1mobile and Aptoide...

Of course, this part of the story doesn't get page clicks or sell ads, so the headlines are only going to talk about the total amount of malware, not how most official users will never encounter it.

[skibnik]

I hate to be the bearer of reality, but the average consumer which is about 90% really doesn't give a rats *** about security until they are the victim.

Hackers are going to attack the operating systems the majority is using which is Android and/or iOS at this point in time.

I personally think this is the perfect time to introduce a product that's Android based which has some great security features built into it like a Blackberry skin. I just might be the one thing to woo the consumer back to the brand.

I am just thinking outside of the box which is what you have to do in today's highly competitive market.

I agree 100%. BlackBerry should release a fully Android phone with BB10 skin for the average consumer and keep BB10 for enterprise and government use.

Loving my Passport!

[theboogeyman]

I hate to be the bearer of reality, but the average consumer which is about 90% really doesn't give a rats *** about security until they are the victim.

Hackers are going to attack the operating systems the majority is using which is Android and/or iOS at this point in time.

I personally think this is the perfect time to introduce a product that's Android based which has some great security features built into it like a Blackberry skin. I just might be the one thing to woo the consumer back to the brand.

I am just thinking outside of the box which is what you have to do in today's highly competitive market.

The truly secure phone does not exist and besides most of us does not really store top secret documents on a phone. There is one constant truth if you go to a security meeting the cellphone have to be left out of the door so this whole security thing is just rubbish. As someone said if you want security and privacy, do not carry a phone wit you.
https://ssd.eff.org/en/module/problem-mobile-phones

[Thud Hardsmack]

The truly secure phone does not exist and besides most of us does not really store top secret documents on a phone. There is one constant truth if you go to a security meeting the cellphone have to be left out of the door so this whole security thing is just rubbish. As someone said if you want security and privacy, do not carry a phone wit you.
https://ssd.eff.org/en/module/problem-mobile-phones

This. One of my brothers used to work for the US govt overseas, and even though he was issued a Bold 9000 (still carried in 2013!) he had to leave that plus his iPhone, keys, and anything capable of receiving a signal in a locker just inside the door to the building, but quite a distance from where they actually worked. As he put it: if it can transmit, it's a security risk - even the OG Bold running its original (albeit stripped down) BBOS 4.6 that didn't have an Android runtime.

[Tre Lawrence]

The truly secure phone does not exist and besides most of us does not really store top secret documents on a phone. There is one constant truth if you go to a security meeting the cellphone have to be left out of the door so this whole security thing is just rubbish. As someone said if you want security and privacy, do not carry a phone wit you.
https://ssd.eff.org/en/module/problem-mobile-phones

You are really hurting some folks feelings with that statement. Some folks like to believe that they are involved in presidential security briefings via their BB devices...