Google’s Android Phone Security As Good As iOS, Security Chief Claims

Android phone security is as good as Apple's iOS platform said Adrian Ludwig, Director of Android Security at Google. This claim comes in spite of popular belief that the Cupertino, California based company's OS is the platform to choose when it comes to security. Google's security chief however claimed that the Android OS is at par in terms of security features. Ludwig also went as far as saying that it can become better against its rival in the near future.

Speaking at the O'Reilly Security conference in Manhattan, Ludwig related the claim to Vice's Motherbard. He talked about how Android's open source nature will make the OS the most secured platform as time progresses. He added that he believed that iPhone is not better in comparison to Android. Ludwig said "For almost all threat models, they are nearly identical in terms of their platform-level capabilities".

After releasing Google's flagship smartphone - the Pixel and Pixel XL last month, Ludwig reiterated that their new smartphone is at the same level with iPhone in its security feature. He claimed that the Android is constantly improving and would beat the rival OS in the future. He pointed out that the open nature of Android's ecosystem will put the OS in a "better place".

To strengthen his claim, Ludwig also presented that even with regular reports of Android-based threats there are a few, if any, real-world occurrences recorded. Furthermore, the security chief gave an example for his presentation. He used the infamous Stagefright bug that festered mindsets in 2015. He said "At this point we still don't have any confirmed instances of exploitation in the wild."

Ludwig, in his part used the majority of his speech to press the issue of how secure Android is. He further claimed that it is almost impossible for a hacker or a threat to affect a large number of users. He also talked about the Android security product dubbed as the Safety Net. This product can scan 400 million devices a day and look at 6 billion apps per day for possible malware threats.

In accordance to his claims coupled with the security program and Android's built-in exploit mitigiation, Ludwig claims that less than 1 percent of Android devices actually contain malware.