Apple has a superb vetting process for all Apps distributed via the App Store, at least so I’ve been told.
iPhones, iPads, MacBooks and other Apple products are almost ubiquitous, everybody I know seems to use them (especially the ones involved in cyber security).
Anytime I want to find a restaurant, go for a ride or check the weather, there’s an app for that. I don’t think much about security on my iPhone, nobody is reminding me. Especially nobody from the government…
So when I was told of a new distribution system which avoids Apple scrutiny, my alarm antennas began quivering, much like a spidey (aka Spiderman) sense. Now combine this with who is doing this, Russian developers, and I get an even more dreadful feeling in the pit of my stomach.
For years many of us in the cybersecurity and cyber warfare fields have been predicting the next series of war-like actions in cyberspace would be taking place on cell phones aka smart phones.
I’ve been asking around about security suites for my smart phone, only to be told “your phone has a built in security suite”, to which I respond: bullshit. Show me. I’m not from Missouri, but please show me, demonstrate to me, tell me how my smart phone is being protected.
Winn Schwartau, Chairman of the Board of Directors to Mobile Active Defense and author of “Information Warfare“, has been preaching Smart Phone defense for years.
Mobile Active Defense seems to be one of the only firms I’ve seen concentrating on defending our smart phones.
We’ve already seen a number of low-level attacks and Winn has been a strong advocate of proactively defending against these developing threats.
Are they our only hope? Is this our first public glimpse of an attempt to install malicious, non-vetted apps onto our smart phones on a large scale?
Cross-posted from To Inform is to Influence