Battle From a standpoint of security: iPhone 13 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S22 (2022)

patrick85

Level 1
Thread author
Mar 13, 2022
12
Hello, I'm considering buying a new smartphone and currently I'm deciding between buying iPhone 13 Pro max, maybe only 13 pro version or buying Samsung Galaxy S22+.
In the past, I've had a very bad experience of being targeted by hackers on my old android device due to the sensitivity of my work and unfortunately, the risk is still high that I may
come under another cyber or surveillance attack with the aim to install monitoring malware on my device to track my location, hack my microphone and camera and steal my personal and financial information.
The group of people targeting me are reasonably sophisticated, not the world's best hackers but people with education in cyber security with experience of doing these types of attacks. I'm not worried only about remote attacks on my device but also ones where someone may try to get psychical access to my device.

My question is which of those two devices would you recommend from the standpoint of security to minimise the chance of a successful attack on my smartphone and to also be able if needed to have the device checked by forensic experts to check or find evidence of a cybercrime.

I know there are non-commercial brands of phones that are focused on security but I'm not sure I would want to go down that road given the user experience those devices provide compared to "commercial" phones. Thank you.
 

Szellem

Level 6
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Well-known
Apr 15, 2020
251
Hello, I'm considering buying a new smartphone and currently I'm deciding between buying iPhone 13 Pro max, maybe only 13 pro version or buying Samsung Galaxy S22+.
In the past, I've had a very bad experience of being targeted by hackers on my old android device due to the sensitivity of my work and unfortunately, the risk is still high that I may
come under another cyber or surveillance attack with the aim to install monitoring malware on my device to track my location, hack my microphone and camera and steal my personal and financial information.
The group of people targeting me are reasonably sophisticated, not the world's best hackers but people with education in cyber security with experience of doing these types of attacks. I'm not worried only about remote attacks on my device but also ones where someone may try to get psychical access to my device.

My question is which of those two devices would you recommend from the standpoint of security to minimise the chance of a successful attack on my smartphone and to also be able if needed to have the device checked by forensic experts to check or find evidence of a cybercrime.

I know there are non-commercial brands of phones that are focused on security but I'm not sure I would want to go down that road given the user experience those devices provide compared to "commercial" phones. Thank you.
My personal suggestion is iPhone. I'm bored with the problems with Android.I'm calm now with iPhone and IOS.
 
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HarborFront

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silversurfer

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patrick85

Level 1
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Mar 13, 2022
12
@patrick85
You can also reading this report about Android and iOS: Security Alert - 2021 Mobile Security: Android more vulnerabilities, iOS more zero-days

Personally, I would go for iphone for main reason already mentioned by @Emanuel Tomasin Most Android devices are supported with security-fixes/updates for a few years only.
In this case, new Samsungs should get 4 OS versions and 5 years of security updates. I however think that Apple is in respect of fixing security vulnerabilities still ahead.
 

HarborFront

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In this case, new Samsungs should get 4 OS versions and 5 years of security updates. I however think that Apple is in respect of fixing security vulnerabilities still ahead.
Yes, longer than that is of no use. If I'm not wrong, iPhone provides 8 yrs of security updates

If it's true, would you keep your iPhone for 8 yrs considering the fact that by then the features would be outdated and the phone would be slow as compared to the new phones then?

To me, I would change a phone in about 2 - 3 yrs time to upkeep with the latest OS, features and with faster speed
 

silversurfer

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Yes, longer than that is of no use. If I'm not wrong, iPhone provides 8 yrs of security updates

If it's true, would you keep your iPhone for 8 yrs considering the fact that by then the features would be outdated and the phone would be slow as compared to the new phones then?

To me, I would change a phone in about 2 - 3 yrs time to upkeep with the latest OS, features and with faster speed

I can tell my user experience with an old iPhone 6, indeed has been received security updates until last year 2021, so it's probably true with 7 or 8 years...
But as you mentioned, that doesn't meant it's really worth to keep using such technically outdated device.
I would agree to purchase a new mobile phone every 5 years, depends mainly how expensive is the price ;)
 

patrick85

Level 1
Thread author
Mar 13, 2022
12
I can tell my user experience with an old iPhone 6, indeed has been received security updates until last year 2021, so it's probably true with 7 or 8 years...
But as you mentioned, that doesn't meant it's really worth to keep using such technically outdated device.
I would agree to purchase a new mobile phone every 5 years, depends mainly how expensive is the price ;)
In this case, I would be more interested in the overall security of the device from standpoint of remote or psychical attacks. As far as I know Samsung has a pretty bad security reputation, not only in the last few weeks where source codes of security features of new Samsung phones were stolen but also in overall. I read some security analysis that even the Knox platform has quite serious flaws that can be exploited and that it still seems that Samsung doesn't focus on security as much as it should given their prices which are almost the same as Iphones at least for the flagship models. The thing I'm not sure about is the actual difficulty of gaining illegitimate access to either of the devices and I was hoping to get a better idea from here and also overall for my use case which isn't just about protecting myself from general threats but from people that are explicitly targeting me.
 

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