Comparative Study of Information Security in Mobile Operating Systems: Android and Apple iOS

Abstract

This theme addresses information security in mobile operating systems: Android and iOS, compare vulnerabilities, and propose security policies, the methodology is qualitative based on bibliographic reference, documentary, and quantitative techniques, which allowed to evaluate the study in detail, the data collected in a systematic way, investigating security measures in mobile phones. It was performed the search to Google Academic® and the Portal de Periódicos Capes. As for the data analysis, it was done in a descriptive way. However, it was concluded that the iOS system presents greater information security compared to Android. Virus infections are not of concern at the moment, but other cyber attacks, spywares capture confidential information by taking to the remote server. The attacks can be identified by the victims online, in industrial, and by targeting them individually. Android and iOS operating systems are preferred by cybercriminals. As for cyber attacks, social networks are the focus. For security policies, we propose preventive, detective, and corrective measures, assign difficult passwords, use modern WPA encryption, Noroot firewall, the Privacy Badger tool for blocking websites, Panopticlick for test web, VeraCrypt to encrypt documents, and the Signal app that encrypts calls.

1. Introduction

The operating systems Android and Apple iOS are the focus of cyber criminals, the comparative study of the same is of extreme importance because we can know their vulnerabilities and propose methods, policies, and security systems to protect data, mobile phones are small and embedded devices, with peculiar characteristics, allow text messaging and multimedia, because it has memory, processor, and an operating system, which allows greater use of confidential information, handling, and exchange of data between users, videos, and other collaborative work with various social networks, which enables failures in cyber security, the loss and theft of information, due to cybercrime that increases substantially, the mobile phone is vulnerable to cybercrime. The current researches focus on information security that has been very questioned about information theft that every day increases due to the greater number of users without information security education and use mobile devices. The operating systems such as Android and iOS from Apple are now the targets of attackers, besides being very common and this feature makes them easy prey, study of this kind for our society is extremely important, we need to have basic culture of information security, control of our passwords, email, social networks, malicious software, and spies, are the apex of the modern age and information, we must be very careful to avoid irreparable losses.

However, we know that security for phones differs in relation to computers, in other words, viruses also differ in the form of attack, although there are compatible operating systems, but they differ in this perspective in which we refer, in the case of the Android operating system virus does not attack the iPhone system for a very simple issue, its core (kernel), that is, in the creation of systems there are different codings and languages and this way the virus is also made of programming language, to happen the attack needs to be made in the same language of the operating system, for this reason, it is important to study them separately (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Virus attack on mobile operating system. Source: Quissanga [1].

The choice of this topic was in order to know which of the operating systems Android and Apple iOS is more secure and to propose security measures to protect information, since we face many problems with data protection.

2. Methodology

This study was possible through my experience as a teacher in the discipline of information security, which allowed to make a systematic evaluation of the research, so we opted for qualitative research based on bibliographic reference, documentaries, and with quantitative techniques, which allowed to evaluate the study in detail, understand how is the care of existing information, present which of the operating systems is the safest as to data protection. Detect system vulnerabilities and present some contingency measures of cyber attacks.

2.1 Data collection

The data collected systematically, investigating safety measures in mobile cellular telephony. The search was conducted in databases such as Google Academic® and Portal de Periódicos Capes. The current research is done in searches to Google Academic®, as described by Creswell [2]:

It is a free database that provides breadth in the search for literature from various sources, such as theses, abstracts and articles, with the advantage of being able to obtain them in full. The Capes Periodicals portal was chosen because it offers access to articles from our Portuguese repertoire selected from over 15,000 international, national and foreign journals and 126 databases with abstracts of documents in all areas of knowledge (Portal de periódicos capes).

Researches of the type generally used the collection of data. We also used the documentary research for living moments in question and being researcher already some time on the thematic of computer security, distributed system, operating systems. It allowed to know to find some expected results. Thus, it is pertinent the quote of Chaer, Diniz, and Ribeiro [3] “as the research technique composed by an approximately high number of questions presented in writing to people, having as objective the knowledge of opinions, beliefs, feelings, interests, expectations, experienced situations, etc.”

2.2 Data analysis

Data analysis was performed descriptively, allowing us to assess, compare, and organize important aspects of the research. Data analysis regarding the comparative study of operating systems, in addition to being users of these systems, we have other academic and scientific knowledge acquired during training that led us to a comparative study in specific terms, to make a deep analysis of each operating system to find which one best responds to cyber attacks. It is notable that a reduced number of works on this theme, which makes the investigation and comparison with the characteristics of the results difficult.

3. Computer viruses in cellular mobile telephony

In today’s society, viruses and other malware have brought countless economic and financial losses. Their study is essential to prevent losses, the Android operating system and Apple iOS are the focus of our study, being the treatment of information thefts have been more by spyware, which sends information to a remote computer and thus be able to have all the information from the phone, banking credentials is the greatest interest.

Quissanga [4] defines:

[…] computer viruses in mobile phones, which we can define as a malicious software made by programming language that infects the operating system and is hosted in the program and replicates to other parts of the system, corrupts and prevents the normal operation of the software or program from starting.

However, phone viruses are not well known, some are more destructive, others less so, but all with the aim of obtaining confidential information from users without them realizing. For this reason, it is important to know the techniques used by cybercriminals, as you cannot be too careful. There are viruses with peculiar characteristics of biological viruses, they attack and weaken the boot system preventing its normal operation. However, the attacker has many skills to be able to use these fast viruses that we will mention later in Table 1.

No.	Virus/worm name/year (updated)	Operating system
1.	Cabir A (June 2004)	Symbian
2.	Caballo de Troya (March 2017)	^Symbian, Windows, Android and Mac OS X
3.	CommWarrior (October 2018)	Symbian and Android
4.	Crossover (March 2011)	Windows Mobile
5.	Doomboot (July 2019)	Symbian
6.	Liberty (September 2007)	Palm OS
7.	RedBrowser (September 2017)	J2ME
8.	FlexiSpy (June 2019)	Symbian and Android
9.	Skuller (June 2004)	Symbian
10.	Gingermaster (April 2011)	Android
11.	Ikee (November 2009)	iPhone OS (IOS)
12.	DroidKungFu (June 2011)	Android
13.	Zitmo (April 2018)	Symbian, Android
14.	YiSpecter (April 2018)	iPhone OS (iOS)

Table 1.

Computer viruses in cellular mobile telephony.

Source: Quissanga [1].

However, it is important to make mention the behavior of cyber criminals, as Futurelearn [5] tells us:

Talk Talk’s cyber attack saw the personal details of 157,000 customers, including credit card details, leaked in October 2015. As a result, the company lost around £60 million and more than 100,000 customers, but customers were also open to potential identity fraud: in some cases, fraudsters used the data to enable them to own up as Talk Talk engineers, contacting customers and persuading them to install malware on their machines.

In this research, we have the idea of differentiating in a very simplistic way the security between the Android and Apple iOS operating systems, which have been much discussed regarding their security, as it is already known that they are the most used systems, but we think that no matter the social status, everyone can have an Android phone or iPhone. In this way, the attacker will prepare himself for the creation of malicious “software,” by knowing properly the programming language and the critical places, vulnerable to take advantage of any precise information that suits him. However, it is necessary to create security mechanisms both at the company level and at the user level. Sometimes we wonder who is responsible and we always look for a guilty party, we should think that information security is a worldwide concern, it can bring states problems, nations can fight, and companies can go bankrupt, because of information security failure. It is known that there are irreparable damages, some are moral, psychological, ethical, cultural, material, and financial. When information is leaked that is classified as legal or state secret, it can facilitate or favor one party and harm another. Previous studies do not show us conclusively that there is a real protocol to follow for the security of information in these operating systems, just as there is no best security strategy, so the most important thing is preventive measures. Because the moment any system is launched on the market is exactly when cyber criminals study the vulnerabilities for the attack.

The spread of viruses in mobile phones today is already a reality, several complaints made by users are noted, as well as mobile phone companies, concerned with creating antivirus to disseminate these virtual plagues. It is possible to verify some forms of virus transmission, which can be: by email through social networks, sometimes appearing as advertising, contact with images of doubtful origin, infected videos, visits to suspicious websites, unprotected wireless network without a secure password, the installation of malicious software, the use of infected memory card as secondary infection, although there is a difference for each operating system regarding the form of virus transmission due to its kernel (core). According to Martinelli [6], “Every operating system has a core called kernel which delimits its functions. It is one of the reasons that makes a mobile virus not spread easily to other devices, due to the different versions and internal structure of the various mobile operating systems.”

Faced with this reality we see that it is not always the user who fails, but also some companies do not properly protect their customers’ information.

In this respect we propose some viruses in mobile phones, as to the operating systems, their origin and attacks on the respective systems described in Table 1 by Quissanga [1]:

The viruses in mobile phones originated very recently, so given their specificity, they are not so well known, but in Table 1 we prefer to mention some peculiar characteristics regarding the operating system they attack. This table mentions the different viruses, their origin, the year in which they were discovered, as well as which operating system they attack, as can be seen in the first Cabir A virus, discovered in 2004 by the company F-Secure, but it attacked the Symbian operating system, after which the fastest viruses that attack Android and Apple iOS began to appear.

However, Le Thanh [7]:

Although malware is growing rapidly, several ordinary users with easy access to their smartphone lack a basic understanding of the potential danger. Therefore, we need to classify samples according to similar characteristics, as well as collect more new malware to create malware families.

4. Mobile operating systems: android and Apple iOS

4.1 Android

The Android operating system is a platform developed by the Google group designed for mobile structure, being a free system allows many programmers to produce viruses for various attacks. Faced with this problem makes it vulnerable. “In the case of Android, the kernel was designed based on version 2.6 of the Linux kernel having similarity in its functionalities, such as security, memory management, process management, etc.” (Silva, cited by Leite e Reis [8]). Android is an operating system that has become very popular due to the number of phones sold, causing greater vulnerability regarding its handling if there is no information security culture and carelessness has taken over many users, in addition to other technological security procedures that should be strengthened in the development of iOS systems. According to Munhoz, quoted by Quissanga [1], “A new virus for Android has now emerged and can be doom for many people, because the malicious ‘software’ automatically performs ‘downloads’, including of paid ‘apps’ and games.” However, it is possible to have an overview of the risks that there are mobile operating systems, so it is more talked about viruses on computers, in this case, we see the relevance of its study by creating security policies to avoid virtual plagues.

4.2 iOS

Apple’s operating system is extremely of Android which is a free system, iOS is closed and has many restrictions to prevent certain pests from affecting the system, manufactured by Apple’s kernel, the first iPhone was released in June 2007, and many phones were sold during its launch in the US, being the second in the world with the largest number of devices, has many peculiar features that attract its customers, its graphics and image resolution, the quality of photos are one of the preferences, but we do not mean that only these details, has others for the choice of one or the other, as well as some complaints from some customers, the form of protection of the shop, and the impediment of sending data via “bluetooth,” which on the one hand for some disadvantages, others see as being protection, since many viruses contaminate through the Bluetooth connection. However, we cannot say that the system is so robust from the security point of view as can be seen in Pandya and Stamp’s quote [9]:

It is clear that the iPhone is a vulnerable device with several security flaws. The iPhone’s security philosophy itself has a significant flaw. Apple’s approach to making the iPhone a secure device was to reduce “the intensity of the device attack ‘or’ the exposure of the device to vulnerabilities.” To do this, Apple allowed write access only to a sandbox area on the file system and impermissible installation of third-party applications.

The iOS systems allow cyber attacks, although different from Android, but the attacks affect and change the password of the system root, making Crack replicate information to the other host (host) without the user realizing, another way is when the attack is done in the App store, the fastest virus that can destroy the boot system is the Trojan horse very fast in the way of contamination. But the worrying thing is the spies (spywares) that monitor every process of the mobile phone to steal confidential information.

4.3 Describing vulnerabilities in operating systems: Android and Apple iOS

Android is a secure system from the point of view of computer viruses, but it also has some vulnerabilities, however it is important to describe some incorrect practices of attacks and configuration changes:

1. Android is based on the technology and programming languages java, kotlin, C, and C++, there are many developers, which makes it vulnerable;

2. Unlock the Android root;

3. Instal an application in APK format;

4. Android is a system developed by Linux open platform that allows many developers;

5. Bluetooth is one of the fastest ways of transmitting computer viruses;

6. The play store on the mobile phone allows you to activate and instal systems outside of it, although that is not the responsibility of the developer, but of the user.

For Apple’s iOS is also a secure operating system, but it is important to mention some incorrect practices:

1. Allow a gaolbreak, this option will allow you to instal applications of unknown origin, which may be malware or spyware;

2. Enable installation of the Unflod Baby Panda malware, which affects jailbroken devices.

However, this seems to be simple information about vulnerability, but it is very important to know the security of the information of both, because they are the most popular phones, and if we compare the damage is fatal, it reminds us of the Panama Papers.

According to the Terra website [10]:

The leak of 11.5 million documents—the so-called Panama Papers from Panamanian law and consulting firm Mossack Fonseca, the world’s fourth largest offshore law firm, is said to have revealed details of hundreds of thousands of clients using overseas tax havens allegedly for tax evasion, money laundering, drug, and arms trafficking.

Imagine thefts by espionage by videos, images, information, confidences, or the cloning of the credit card that produce an impact on the average, things that there is no price, in your company as to your reputation, sometimes we can be blackmailed millions of dollars, this does not worry?

4.4 Unsafe practices in mobile phones of systems: android and Apple iOS

In this theme it is important to mention some unsafe practices of users, facilitating the crack to carry out cyber attacks, in this case the customers somehow contribute by not having basic education in information security. In this case the failures are not always related to the company that developed the mobile device, so when we talk about these two systems we can deduce that they are robust and safe regarding the attacks on computer viruses, with some specificities that differ them. However, it is necessary to know how we have failed, since each one of us has used an Android mobile phone or iPhone and knows how it works, but with some limitations of the information security processes, carelessness has been noticed in many users of mobile devices, which translates into huge economic losses, social engineering, cloning of credit cards on unshielded sites, are the focus of Hackers and Crackers to perform computer crime. For Futurelearn [5]: “Cyber security attacks take many forms, from obtaining personal information of users to attacking critical national infrastructure and obtaining proprietary data of companies.” However, we can name three forms of attacks:

1. The attack is carried out by identifying the victims online;

2. Generally the attack is on industrial plants;

3. Finally it is done individually by target.

Given this panorama, it is important to conclude this topic by touching on some harmful practices caused by carelessness, lack of knowledge, ignorance, among others, which allow computer theft in mobile phones:

1. Opening suspicious emails (email spoofing, email spoofing) with spyware, malware and phishing that captures highly confidential information;

2. Allow bank details to be diverted;

3. Instal software on your phone on sites outside playstore, appstore, itunesstore and googlestore;

4. Online purchases on websites of accredited companies, without the possibility of credit card cloning;

5. Make it easier to change data in the phone database without authorization (Pharming);

6. Use a server without anti-malware, anti-spyware, and firewall;

7. Facilitating espionage (Sniffing), intersecting and monitoring data for information theft;

8. Allow someone to check while you enter your password;

9. Use social networks without the utmost caution for what you install and configure;

10. Using the mobile device without a secure password.

4.5 Propose security measures in operating systems: android and Apple iOS

“A saying used by people dealing with computer security issues goes as follows: A totally secure system is one that is switched off, locked in a vault and watched over by armed guards”(Ferreira [11]).

Security measures can be in the scope of hardware (Physical) and software (Logical). There are several, but we will mention only a few, and we cannot forget four protocols for information security:

1. Authenticity: the term allows us to accredit that it is authorized. The information must be used by the user and not someone else;

2. Confidentiality: it is exclusively for authentic users;

3. Integrity: the information provided must be passed on as it was designed to its recipient;

4. Intimacy: only authorized persons may have contact with the information on the phone.

4.5.1 Measures can also be preventive, detective, and corrective

1. Preventive measures: these are measures that precede a cyber attack, for example, controlling the entire mobile phone security system, assigning defaults and passwords, creating back-ups or redundant backups, installing anti-spyware and anti-spam; Making online purchases with credit cards on websites of companies that are shielded to avoid cloning: Use secure websites and email, make purchases in the appropriate shops: play store, appstore and itunesstore;

2. Detective measures: this is when we carry out an audit process to analyze the mobile phone’s security weakness, the aim is to find possible vulnerabilities or cyberattacks for possible correction;

3. Corrective measures: these are applied when there is any cybersecurity failure, they are solved in an emergent way, to avoid a lot of irreversible damage.

4.5.2 Logical safety policy

1. Assign passwords that are difficult to decipher, with various combinations and changes, to prevent attack (Social Engineering), we suggest password management: KeePass;

2. Use cryptographic techniques: hide codes to present information without being revealed;

3. Recognise the secure web browser showing a padlock and the word S in the link, that is, the non-secure one shows the following: http, the secure one shows: https;

4. Test your web browser using a free Panopticlick tool;

5. We suggest Privacy Badger which is a website blocker in case your website is being targeted by spies;

6. For information protection in case you want to permanently delete unwanted or old information without the possibility of recovering it, we suggest the File Shredder tool;

7. For WiFi technology, modern WPA encryption is recommended.²

8. In case of phone calls we propose the Signal app encrypts the calls prevents the communication from being leaked;

9. We suggest you use the VeraCrypt tool to encrypt your important documents;

10. Firewall: instal in Noroot firewall, to block suspicious sites or deny, or allow selectively. Very important for information security;

11. Honey pot: is a security system tester, also used to preserve the network from cyber attacks;

12. Virtual Private Network (VPN): is using with noroot, are responsible for creating authenticity, privacy and integrity of data, combined with cryptographic technology.

Medranda [12] makes mention about the level of security used in social networks:

The first category studied was the level of security of social networks, considering the choice and use of the security password used by students in social networks, 112 students responded that they used the same password for all, but not for email or mobile phone, which represented 67.5% of the total. 21.8% (35 students) they mentioned that it differs depending on the social network and also different from the email address and mobile phone PIN. The lowest percentage corresponded to the use of the password for everything (social networks, email and mobile phone) 8.1%.

However, we can observe that social networks are now the focus for many contaminations and cyber attacks. According to Tumejormovil [13] “In fact, according to 2017 studies, 67.1% of mobile phones worldwide have Android and, specifically in Spain, 90%, so it is shown that it is a good operating system and could quietly be the best on the market.” As we said before by the numbers of users in mobile cellular devices, the control must be jointly, the company does its part in implementing security and the customer must follow the same security protocol to avoid security collapse. For Rina [14] “iOS Mobile Operating System: iOS (formerly called iPhone OS) is from Apple Inc. It has the second largest installed base worldwide in smartphones, but the largest profits due to aggressive price competition between Android-based Manufacturers.” Yes, iOS has a lot of audience, despite its restrictions and some bureaucratic processes that on the other hand is a security mechanism that is often not understood, a very simple example the Bluetooth on Android is not possible to send to iOS, the withdrawal of any information on the iPhone is difficult compared to Android.

Inside briefly we can explain that these two largest world markets (OS) are evolving and expanding as iOS to include versions of many features that are in Android. Meanwhile, Android gets a technical overhaul that it needs to match iOS in terms of speed and battery life (Haseeb [15]).

In other words, the Android operating system has many versions and many mobile devices on the market, the two operating systems try to solve some differences, now Android tries to find technology to overcome or match a feature that iOS has the battery life, that there are already also mobile phones Android mobile phones with acceptable battery life.

5. Results and discussion

Android and iOS operating systems regarding computer viruses are safe, but each one has its vulnerability, because we cannot say we are totally safe, from the point of view of comparison with the two operating systems Android and Apple iOS, the latter presents greater protection of the security system, Since Apple’s iOS was made by a different programming language than Android, we know that there are specific attacks for a particular operating system, for example, Android tends to be more vulnerable than iOS, by having an open platform that translates into a considered number of developers, otherwise the permission of the installation outside the play store.

Android and iOS operating system are the most preferred of cyber attacks as they have many users.

As for cyber attacks, social networks are now the focus for many contaminations.

In the path of information security in Apple iOS operating system takes a better approach Alvarez [16] “To protect its users from malicious apps, Apple has introduced a vetting process which ensures that all apps follow Apple’s privacy rules before they can be made available through the App Store.”

In this security theme for iOS, there has been another investment from the PiOS tool, which does statistical analysis to find information from Objective-C source code and Mach-Obinaries data flowcharts. This tool has been successful in checking for information leaks on mobile devices.

We can note that some insecure practices by users make it easier for Crack to carry out cyber attacks. Carelessness has been noted in many users of mobile devices, which causes the cloning of credit cards that translates into economic and financial losses.

It is not always the user who fails, but also some companies do not properly protect customer information.

It is important that companies promote basic training on information security techniques to employees.

However, to have security, it is necessary to use the protocols: authenticity, confidentiality, integrity, and intimacy. As for the measures of always: Preventive, detective, and corrective. Regarding the security policy, we suggest some applications already mentioned previously to be able to protect the computer systems.

6. Conclusions

During the comparative study of mobile cellular operating systems: Android and iOS, it can be concluded that: iOS is more secure compared to Android, due to the restrictions and security mechanisms imposed by Apple. Otherwise, computer virus infections in mobile phones are not very worrying at the moment, but other cyber attacks, spyware that captures confidential information leading to a remote server, that is, even geographically distant, it monitors all user information to take advantage. Meanwhile, we can cite three forms of attacks: the attack is done by identifying the victims online, in industrial, and lastly by targeting them individually. However, the carelessness of users in information security, such as social engineering, attacks on banking data, cloning of credit cards, and the installation of software outside the play store, appstore, and itunesstore are the biggest concern. For this reason, it was necessary to propose information security policies: the greatest care with passwords; for WiFi technology the modern WPA encryption is recommended; installation in Noroot firewall; use: the Privacy Badger tool to block unsafe sites; the Panopticlick specialist in web testing, VeraCrypt to encrypt important documents and in the case of telephone calls the Signal application that encrypts the calls prevents anyone from listening to the call made.