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Why are people not buying secure smartphones?

More and more, we're trusting smartphones with ever singe piece of personal information about our...
Newstalk
Newstalk

12.21 8 Jul 2016


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Why are people not buying secu...

Why are people not buying secure smartphones?

Newstalk
Newstalk

12.21 8 Jul 2016


Share this article


More and more, we're trusting smartphones with ever singe piece of personal information about ourselves, and we don't seem to be worried at all.

We're more likely to say something discreet or secret by typing it on our phone than our laptop or desktop. We feed it our credit card numbers, health records, and passwords without hesitation.

Yet people don't seem to understand a smartphone is a computer as vulnerable to hacking as your laptop.

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Security has always been a concern of the big smartphone manufacturers. They will say they've beefed up security so nothing can get in.

That's not always true. This week we've seen a new malware attack for Android that gets into the root of the phone's operating system. It primarily affects older versions of Android, which is what most of the world's smartphones run.

Experts have also estimated there are at least 10 million infected Android handsets in the world.

Silent Circle

There have been attempts to sell completely safe, secure, and private smartphones. Silent Circle produced two phones called the Blackphone and Blackphone 2 that ran super-secured and locked down versions of Android.

Silicon Valley pioneer and Silent Circle co-founder Jon Callas shows off his Blackphone with encryption apps | Photo: PA Images

Silicon Valley pioneer and Silent Circle co-founder Jon Callas shows off his Blackphone with encryption apps | Photo: PA Images

We've just learned that since the phone was announced, their selling figures have been terrible, with many carrier deals falling through because of lack of interest from buyers.

So why don't people care about smartphone security?

Security reasons

A lot of it comes down to too little, too late. The titan smartphone manufacturers have been set in stone now, there seems to be very little to budge them. The market will not suddenly jump ship under threat of security scares.

Another reason is that the apps we use are handling your security now, not the actual hardware.

A lot of apps, specifically around messaging, feature very good levels of encryption, providing security and safety. When you send someone a message, it's completely locked down on the way to whoever you send it to. It cannot be seen or accessed by the app developer, no matter who asks for it.

Smartphones first hit the markets as trinkets, little devices people wanted because they looked good. Security problems really arose into their lifespan, when the market and the people who buy them had decided on what they wanted.

Hacking or attacking smartphones is still no way near as lucrative for hackers than regular computers, so right now, your phone is safe. But don't forget about how much your phone knows about you, and how much a lot of people want that info.


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