Is My Brand of Phone or Laptop Secure?

With so many manufacturers out there, multiple media outlets talking about privacy, and geopolitical risks relating to large technology companies, it can be hard to know if the devices we use are safe.

Phone Security

For phones, sticking with a major provider is your best bet. This includes Apple, Google, and Samsung.

Apple is the sole manufacturer of the iPhone, the only phones with the iOS operating system, which means it is easier for them to commit to security updates for longer periods of time without having to worry about cross-compatibility across different hardware manufacturing providers (unlike Android).

Google is the main commercial sponsor and major contributor to the open-source Android operating system, and also happens to manufacture their own hardware devices (Pixel phones). Since Android is an open-source operating system, the software is freely available for other device manufacturers to use. It also means they tend to add their own changes, often in the form of ads and other unnecessary apps (also called bloatware). These changes and customizations make it harder for them to keep up to date with any Android project updates due to compatibility issues, which often means these devices are left on older, unsafe versions of the Android operating system.

Some manufacturers recognize that leaving their whole customer base vulnerable to security weaknesses is not a great look, and make promises to dedicate time and resources to keeping their devices supported. In February 2021, Samsung promised to keep their devices supported with security updates for up to four years after initial release. Google also promises to support their devices for security updates for up to five years for their latest device.

Regular security updates aren’t the only thing to consider. The large device manufacturer Xiaomi also provides promised updates, but has been caught in the middle of some challenging research and news reports in the past few years. While they successfully pushed back on the US government after they unlawfully blacklisted them, they still got caught collecting excessive amounts of data from their devices (even in incognito mode). While they did make changes in favor of privacy, they still have some ways to go to build trust for me.

​confusion​ To be clear, there are definitely other great open-source mobile operating systems out there (like LineageOS or PureOS). As we have discussed earlier, we assume that you, the reader, have already made the trade-off between using a large tech provider and giving them control over hosting and securing things like your email and file storage. These other operating systems are often built to keep large tech providers off your device, ultimately favoring privacy over convenience and resources. I don’t recommend these to everyone because it adds friction to your life when we are trying to find solutions that seamlessly fit into how you already live.

All this talk about mobile operating systems applies to tablets too. Apple’s iPad tablet runs iPadOS, which is very similar to their iPhone operating system. Samsung’s Galaxy tablets run Android, same as their mobile phones. Google is the only odd one out that runs a different operating system (called Chrome OS, which is used in their netbooks). This makes sense as tablets are often treated and used like a mobile phone with a larger screen and detachable keyboard. You often still download software from a central app store, and are quite limited in what you can and can’t do. It is when we get to laptops, or devices that tend to have a lot more freedom and functionality, that security considerations start to change.

Laptop Security

For laptops, it’s a tad more complicated. It will depend on what your business does, and if it is easier for you to operate your business on a specific operating system. There are pros and cons between picking Mac, Windows, or any flavor of Unix. So long as it allows you to configure the protection steps mentioned earlier, it will do fine. The biggest issue you may run into is operating system updates. So if you have recently dusted off an old laptop that you are using to start up your new venture, make sure it isn’t still running Windows 7 (which went end-of-support in January 2020).

The great thing about device operating systems nowadays is that they are being made with the features you need built-in, so there is no need to find, research, and download other software to perform your security for you. We will get into this concept a bit more when we talk about anti-virus software.