Android Security: How's BlackBerry going to fix it? “Android Security” sounds like an oxymoron, perhaps the biggest since “friendly fire”. So what’s BlackBerry, which has forged a reputation on enterprise security, thinking with the new Priv device? BlackBerry's handset division is promising to create a business-friendly secure 'droid, and it’s recently been explaining just how …
"There’s our ability to patch vulnerabilities much faster than other Android smartphone makers, and other features I didn’t mention. It’s why I firmly believe PRIV will be MORE resilient than everything else."
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/10/tempest-in-a-teacup/
Given Androids licensing and setup, could one patch general holes (not vendor specific) ahead of Google, to one's own devices?
Would that help security?
Would just matching Google's patch release cycle help sales? If the main risk here is slow patching by most vendors, then you would think Nexus et all would already be benefiting from the security conscious's biz. Instead it looks as if they compete for punter's $ mainly on price & features, just like the others. I.e. Sure you hear folks talk about patching, but at the end that Sammy Galaxy 6 is just so shiny.
Best of luck to BB though.
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It's not that it doesn't matter how many vulnerabilities there are, but the fact is that vulnerabilities will be found if there's enough money to be made, and when that happens the patches are worthless unless they make it onto the vulnerable devices. I'm sure OpenBSD doesn't have any security vulnerabilities (!) but if it did, you would want them patched in a timely manner, wouldn't you?
It's a nice idea, and I hope it works. The idea is very tempting - Android for Enterprise (A title I'm not aware that any handset or manufacturer can legitimately claim at the moment) Is sounding pretty good.
Dunnow if its possible or feasible, but good on them for trying.
Besides the software, I've always had a soft spot for android hardware: The blackberry Bold 9900 is probably my favourite handset in terms of hand feel and using as an actual phone, even if it was closer to a feature phone than a smartphone thanks to BBOS 7. I remember thinking "Man, if only this ran Android..."
Further, interestingly the article chooses to ignores the biggest sh@te fest of delayed patch rollout thanks to the mobile phone (mafia) providers. Additionally who's measuring the f@ked up bollo* that mobile telcos roll into their custom update experience, not to mention voluntary user malware installation; No shi@ there are security problems with Android.
Good luck Blackberry
no Phone will ever be nearly good enough. ooh...no memory card...oohh...bloatware...oohh...it's an Apple...oohhh...Microsoft sucks...oohhh...Blackberry is going belly up...and so on, and so forth.
If smartphone manufacturers put any truck in the comments posted here, not a single smartphone would ever get made.
I'm watching the release of this with great interest. Apart from it being a Blackberry, who have admittedly made some bad decisions in the past BUT have quite a solid pedigree in providing business class comms, it looks like quite a decent phone as well.
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Pff. Port Flex or OS/400. A capability architecture provides a bunch of security benefits.
Or port the Burroughs B5000 architecture, with its tagged memory words.
(Not that VMS wouldn't have been fun too - though you'd want to set the default number of preserved file versions lower for all those storage-eating media files.)
Hmmm ....
Blackberry ...
Fix something?
Nah!
These AHs were never able to get their desktop software to work properly leaving thousands of users on their own to go through hell just to get the damn phones detected, not to mention a myriad of other problems that cropped up with every 'upgrade'. I know, I am one of them. Now, it's all Android and we are all left out in the cold.
My advice?
Don't hold your breath.
If you're referring to the desktop backup software, I concur. Just had my Q10 drop 35 feet to a hard floor. Last several times I tried to do backup to a desktop, yes, six months or more ago alas, it errored out.
Love the phone though. Not great for surfing but a superb communications device. Love the Hub.
"Android represents a global IT security threat not seen for over a decade" I am going to print this out in 6 inch high letters and hold it up in front of every muppet in our organisation who thinks the mobile future includes Android when they are processing customers' health information.
The Blackberry name probably still carries some weight. But if they sell based on security, they better follow through. They shouldn't even need to wait on Google's "official" fix if a discovered problem has an obvious fix, that would really help tip the scales in their favor if they can beat the patches out for Google's own Nexus devices.
The other thing they can do is provide Android users with the ability to control permissions individually even after install, like iOS users can. There's no good reason why Google hasn't provided this ability, but doing so may get Android users who are knowledgeable enough to realize why this is a big win to move to the Priv (at least if they introduce a model that drops the unnecessary added weight of the slide out keyboard)
As for the inability to root it, well iOS does the same "secure boot" thing but jailbreaks abound. I'm sure there will be ways found to jailbreak your Priv just as with iPhones for those so inclined.
BlackBerry have done it again.....how can they justify the price being so high? What business is going to choose these over a cheaper iPhone of Samsung S6?
Security sounds great but you know what most people don't really care. The IT buyer might want if but I guarantee all the sales people, management etc will all want iphones. I'm not saying this is a good thing but look at any organization of any size and I think that will be the picture you'll see.
If the Priv was launched at £200 they could have gained some market share back most likely. None of the UK networks are interested in selling it. I believe only the Carphone Warehouse has shown a glimmer of interest and that is for business customers only. Why would they waste money on them just to sit in their stock room waiting to be discounted. Hasn't BlackBerry learnt anything from the Passport, Z30, Z10, Q10 and Q5. With the exception of the the Q5 all had crazy inflated prices and were very quickly discounted. I think the Z10 was £400+ initially then price was around £100 a few months later.
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