The world's not so far away from asking “why can't our laptops be as secure as our mobiles?”, according to Good Technology's John Herrema. Visiting Australia last week for the Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit, Herrema told The Register it's time to challenge the idea that mobiles are intrinsically less secure than …

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Monday 26th August 2013 04:59 GMT John Tserkezis

Dunno. Only places I've read that claim mobile kit is inheretly insecure are anti-virus outfits.

Presumably so you can buy *their* particular brand of crapware.

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1. Tuesday 27th August 2013 11:17 GMT N13L5
  
  I agree with you, Antivirus outfits must be the seediest part of the software industry.
  
  Aside from this, what's all this continuous BS about security?
  
  I think corporate media is trying to convince us of this hardware security, which will only serve for OTHERS to have more control over what YOU do on YOUR computer.
  
  The SO CALLED CHIP LEVEL SECURITY is nothing but a scam:
  
  It starts with extra difficulty booting alternate operating systems and it ends with NSA trapdoors allowing them right from hardware to turn on your webcam, your microphone and dust off your hard drive whenever they feel like it.
  
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Monday 26th August 2013 05:29 GMT jake

My SCADA stuff runs the same OS as my firewall ... BSD.

To date (30+ years)? No intrusions.

Cellphone? Nokia 5185. Places & receives calls. Even in Sonoma Valley's so-called "dead zones", and on the road between Saratoga & Los Gatos. Can't ask more than that from a phone.

Desktops/laptops? Slackware.

Microsoft/Apple/Canonical? Not invited here. I don't do shovelware anymore. Too much of a headache over the long-haul..

So-called "smart" phones? Not until they are mature. Probably another decade. Maybe. If the marketers allow the engineers to actually do their jobs.

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Monday 26th August 2013 05:47 GMT leeCh

Pwnies? It's not just windoze machines and droid mobs

So has this guy never heard of pwn2own? I love people mouthing at windoze when a still sizable chunk of Macs are still running 'hacked in 5 seconds' versions of OS(u)X.

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Monday 26th August 2013 09:16 GMT Sirius Lee

It's a dumb comment that conflate two issues. The implication of the comment is that rooted = insecure which is nonsense. The corollary of that is that there are no security problems in the software provided by a mobile phone service provider. What's this? Amateur night at El Reg?

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1. Monday 26th August 2013 09:32 GMT jake
  
  @ Sirius Lee: "rooted" isn't automagically proof of lack of security?
  
  What colo(u)r is the sky in your world?
  
  Amateur night, indeed.
  
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Monday 26th August 2013 11:55 GMT mark l 2

We can't assume that phones are going to be changed in 12 -18 months, unless my phone breaks or the new smart phones start coming out with batteries that last 1 week+ between charges i am not planning on changing my phone in the next year as i don't see anything new i need my phone to do that is doesn't do already.

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Monday 26th August 2013 15:27 GMT Anonymous Coward

RE: Windows is as secure as a rooted Android

I for one wouldn't do internet banking or anything else sensitivein either.

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Monday 26th August 2013 19:04 GMT RobHib

Well, my mobe is pretty secure.

I had the the internet disconnected at the telco.

Now, it's only a phone.

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Tuesday 27th August 2013 10:18 GMT STZ

Secure end user devices ?

That applied to dumb terminals like 3270 or VT100, but these days are long gone. Today, all end user devices (desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones etc.) are fundamentally insecure as they accept and execute downloaded code - which of course makes them vulnerable to downloaded malicious code.

Not sure about the smartphone to SCADA comparison in this context, these are entirely different environments. But of course there are issues too - the most effective way to boost SCADA security would be to painstakingly avoid Windows in those critical environments. This would block the majority of potential hackers. However, Linux isn't any better, there are even more vulnerabilities - it's only that there are fewer people able to exploit those. For best protection, you would have to avaoid anything running on X86 and go to proprietary gear.

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