A new study entitled “25 Years of Vulnerabilities” by security firm Sourcefire released in March attributes 81% of instances of mobile malware to the iPhone and iOS, compared to 9% for Android, 6% for Windows phones, and 4% for Blackberry.
It draws on two sources: the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) as well as Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) data. What is surrealistically strange, however, is that the reason iOS is so prone to attack may be Apple’s strict control on iOS and app releases on the app store, which seems to actually motivate hackers and cybercriminals to target Apple and it’s operating system, and makes it a lot more of a challenge worth pursuing to them.The other reason is that Apple apparently did not initially take seriously the issue of protecting user data from hack attacks, which reports say they have improved greatly since then. Apple also put a lot of effort in securing the iOS in recent years, although hackers seem to have succeeded in being one step ahead. The growth rate of iOS related vulnerabilities is itself going up; in contrast to Android, where instances of vulnerabilities actually declined in 2012 compared to 2011 despite the fact that Android has grown in terms of market share in that period.
In response to the upcoming launch of the Galaxy S4, Apple put up a webpage that lists all the reasons as they see it that give the iPhone an edge. Of course, if you read this site you know that we are somewhat pro Android over iOS, so I couldn’t help going there to check if there are any claims of better security with iPhone over other OS’s. There weren’t.
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