Study into the Implications of Smartphone Operating System Security

Study into the implications of Smartphone operating system security
1. THE EMERGING THREAT TO CONSUMERS
Overview
Smartphones have become the remote controls for our ever-important digital lives. We rarely
let them out of our sight, even when we are asleep, and perform much of our daily activities
on them.
Smartphones access and store much of our digital lives, both personal and business.
Smartphones and tablet computers have become the dominant digital device and we now
preform much of our social networking, shopping, messaging (iOS has become the number
one client for email replacing Microsoft Outlook), banking and business activities on them.
There is also a question whether consumers have changed their risk behaviour to adapt to
how we are using Smartphones. Tony Neate, CEO, Get Safe Online, believes it has taken
many years for consumers to change their behaviour to adapt to using desktop-based
electronic services but “with mobile we have a whole new mountain to climb”. Neate feels
that “there is a different behaviour when we use our Smartphones to that of desktop
computers” and a “new behavioural change is required”. 11
With this increasing reliance on Smartphones comes the possibility of increasing threats and
security risk. These threats will replicate what has already been experienced with other
forms of information technology (as Smartphone operating systems have commonality with
other systems, e.g. Linux Kernel and WebKit) but we shall also see other, mobile-specific,
threats that will probe for weaknesses in unique characteristics that Smartphones support.
For instance:
Accurate location based services, using a combination of GPS and GSM location
data to accurately pinpoint where a device and its owner are
Faster network access through 4G (LTE) and future fast radio-based networks
Using a Smartphone as a payment source either at the physical Point-of-sale (POS)
using Near Field Communications (NFC) or using other mobile payment solutions for
in-app payment/billing and peer-to-peer (P2P) payment between one device and
another
Capturing biometric data via embedded sensors such as fingerprint readers,
conventional and bespoke cameras for facial, iris and retinal scanning, in-built
microphones for capture of voiceprints (some of which can be captured by an in-built
voice sensor) and sensors to capture and record other biometrics such as pulse,
blood pressure and electrocardiogram (ECG)
Goode Intelligence believes that the threats to Smartphone consumers can be broken down
into these main areas:
Lost and stolen Smartphones
11 Tony Neate interview with Goode Intelligence, 15 th March 2013.
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