Cybersecurity experts: Android phones may now be more secure than iPhones

For a long time, it used to be that Apple's iPhones offered considerably better security than their Android counterparts, with Apple flaunting how uncrackable its phones were, as well as refusing to offer backdoor access into iPhones. Apparently, though, things may have changed.

While Apple still refuses to create backdoors that can be accessed by the government in its phones, that doesn't seem to be able to stop intelligence agencies from gaining access to Apple's iPhones. 

A report from Vice has revealed that several companies offer tools for breaking Apple's encryption. One of them is Cellebrite, an Isreali cybersecurity outfit, with its Universal Forensic Extraction Device being favored by the FBI. Going by the report, Cellebrite's tool is powerful enough to break into iPhone models up to—and including—the iPhone X. The tool allows app data, call logs, GPS records, messages, and contacts to be extracted.

Interestingly, though, doing that on Android devices is a lot harder. Cellebrite's UFED tool failed to adequately extract any app data, internet browsing, or GPS records from phones like the Google Pixel 2 and Samsung Galaxy S9. Even weirder, it completely failed at getting anything from the Huawei P20 Pro.

“Right now, we’re getting into iPhones, " Detective Rex Kiser, a digital forensic examiner for the Fort Worth Police Department, was quoted as saying. "A year ago we couldn’t get into iPhones, but we could get into all the Androids. Now we can’t get into a lot of the Androids.”

This is likely only relevant for Android owners on the newer versions of the OS, since the tide apparently started turning of recent. It's still good news for users of Android, however.