[Justa82]

You always hear "Blackberry is more secure than the iPhone". That's why they still dominate the Enterprise. I'm trying to understand why from a technical standpoint. What is it about the way Blackberry OS is designed that makes is more secure than iOS?

I've read the articles on iOS that tell of Safari-based hacking through a simple click, how the entire encryption scheme was busted in iOS3 simply by plugging it into a machine running Ubuntu, etc.

Does Blackberry OS do a better job of sandboxing the OS or apps? Do they have better software encryption? You also hear "Blackberry was built from the ground up with security in mind"...what does that even mean?

Not trying to start a war...this is purely for research purposes

[Dubdub]

Might try reading through this section. There was an entire discourse along those same lines a few weeks back.

[Justa82]

I believe you're referring to this thread, no? Very interesting read, but not exactly what I'm looking for. I understand BES vs BIS compared to, say, ActiveSync on the iPhone.

I'm interested in device security itself, not the transmission of data. Three dudes lose their smartphones in a cab: 1 blackberry, 1 android device, and 1 iPhone. A hacker picks 'em up and goes to work. My understanding is that it's rather trivial to hack into the iPhone and steal the contents...email, contacts, etc. With Blackberry, I'm told the device is essentially impenetrable. Don't know much about Android.

Anyone know why this is the case? Is there something about Blackberry OS that separates itself from iOS or Android from a device security standpoint?

[aiharkness]

BES aside, which I know very little about.... For the consumer on BIS, so far as I know there is no malware that on its own without permission of the user can install on a blackberry. There is one case I heard of -- only one case -- of malware produced for blackberry, perhaps as a proof of concept, but it still required the user to install it.

For that matter, nothing installs on the blackberry without the user allowing it. And the user has control over the application permissions.

When the user sets a device password, there is a default 10 allowed attempts, or the max allowed attempts set by the user, and after that the device wipes. If the user has also enabled content protection, then the memory is scrubbed. There is no security question. No time out. Exceed the max attempts and all user data is removed.

Content protection, when enabled, encrypts data on the device so that data cannot be accessed even by direct access to the chips.

Blackberry messenger messages are strictly speaking not encrypted, but are scrambled.

All this is public information. A little searching will find this, and more.

[Justa82]

BES aside, which I know very little about.... For the consumer on BIS, so far as I know there is no malware that on its own without permission of the user can install on a blackberry. There is one case I heard of -- only one case -- of malware produced for blackberry, perhaps as a proof of concept, but it still required the user to install it.

For that matter, nothing installs on the blackberry without the user allowing it. And the user has control over the application permissions.

When the user sets a device password, there is a default 10 allowed attempts, or the max allowed attempts set by the user, and after that the device wipes. If the user has also enabled content protection, then the memory is scrubbed. There is no security question. No time out. Exceed the max attempts and all user data is removed.

Content protection, when enabled, encrypts data on the device so that data cannot be accessed even by direct access to the chips.

Blackberry messenger messages are strictly speaking not encrypted, but are scrambled.

All this is public information. A little searching will find this, and more.

Allow me to be a little more specific...my question has evolved slightly.

The iPhone has content protection in the form of full device encryption, just like Blackberry, right? The iPhone has a passcode, just like Blackberry. I'm specifically trying to understand why the iPhone has been hacked incredibly easily, whereas my understanding is that if a hacker stole my Blackberry, there's absolutely no way he could siphon my data from my device....e.g., it's impossible. I'm not referring to BBM, application permissions, BIS vs BES, or malware.

Is the answer as simple as "the Blackberry's implementation of content protection is superior to Apple's"?

[CanuckBB]

Originally Posted by Justa82

Is the answer as simple as "the Blackberry's implementation of content protection is superior to Apple's"?

Yes