Mar 23, 2007 10:49 AM

Smartphones Are Not Secure

Your phone isn’t just a phone. It’s a little slice of insecurity burning a hole in your information’s pocket. Smartphones are, in fact, artificially-gimped computers, running unstable operating systems, which likely can’t encrypt communications because cellular protocols like GSM are fundamentally security-broken. Pretexting cellular operators is a walk in the park. Most devices spread their […]

Your phone isn't just a phone. It's a little slice of insecurity burning a hole in your information's pocket.

Smartphones are, in fact, artificially-gimped computers, running unstable operating systems, which likely can't encrypt communications because cellular protocols like GSM are fundamentally security-broken. Pretexting cellular operators is a walk in the park. Most devices spread their security-legs the second they're plugged into a USB host. Smartphone file system and application quality is in the toilet; but, of course, you can't securely delete data from them when you actually want to.

Computer world peers with due suspicion at these devices, and offers the long form:

Our columnist sees Barack Obama with that BlackBerry and shudders [Computer World]

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