Probably, today there are no active smartphone users left who have not heard about encryption. Many, most likely, do not even understand the meaning of this term, but they are absolutely sure that this is something good, useful and, most importantly, necessary for their safety. In fact, knowing more, in general, is not required, because understanding the deep principles of encryption will hardly help you. Another thing is that Android, which has earned the fame of not the most secure operating system, unlike the same iOS, does not at all dispose to believe in the effectiveness of its protective mechanisms. But this, of course, is the deepest delusion.
Android turned out to be a more secure OS than iOS
What is Android better than iOS
This is Cellebrite's smartphone jailbreak device
Detective Rex Keizer, who conducts forensic investigations for the Fort Worth Police Department, USA, said that Android has made great strides in user safety. If a year ago law enforcement agencies could not hack iPhone and could hack Android smartphones, now access to most devices based on the operating system of the search giant turns out to be not even difficult, but simply impossible. According to Kaiser, the tool of the Israeli company Cellebrite, with the help of which the special services still successfully bypass security iOS, are nowhere near as effective in the case of Android.
However, Kaiser explains, it is completely wrong to believe that the protection Android is the exclusive merit of Google. In many ways, we should thank the manufacturers of smartphones for this, many of which do not use a pure operating system, but shells built on its basis. They allow not only to change the design of the interface, but also to modify the software platform as the manufacturer needs. Additional protective mechanisms that appear in third-party shells are one of their advantages. Another thing is that they are not being introduced for the sake of users, Kaiser is sure.
How fragmentation makes Android better
The expert believes that manufacturers are introducing protective mechanisms into their shells in order to discourage law enforcement. After all, if a smartphone cannot be hacked, firstly, this will provide it with a reputation as a reliable device and will attract users for whom it matters, and, secondly, it will show the manufacturer's integrity and dissuade the special services from turning to him for help. After all, the provision of any data is, first of all, material costs and only secondly – reputation losses.
Does all this mean that hacking Android is not a smartphone? Of course not. It's just that this process today may turn out to be even more difficult than hacking iPhone. Indeed, as practice shows, it is not particularly difficult for law enforcement agencies to hack even iPhone 11, which is equipped with a special processor that encrypts data. However Android is proving to be a more secure platform today, at least according to the forensic expert. Personally, I fully admit this possibility, since Android is distinguished by a high level of fragmentation, which consists in an abundance of different shells and often completely unique security tools.