Are smartphones your top internet browsing device?

For emails, ordering on the web etc. I have a laptop with an additional large screen (ideal for editing photos). I never use my phone for emails as I need reading glasses to see the screen & even then the small print annoys me. The additional screen is also great for dragging & dropping etc.

I removed all on-line banking Apps from my Android phone as soon as I heard of that threat.

I also only use my own 3G connections or reputable home wifi networks. I won’t use free wifi in venues such as restaurants because it is all too easy for hackers to either offer their own “trojan” networks or monitor network traffic at such venues.

I use Kaspersky security software. Does that provide protection?

Your comments about the security of android are nonsense:

Using the same measure you referenced (number of security vulnerabilities discovered):
* Android had 54 vulnerabilities discovered
* The Iphone had 537 security vulnerabilities discovered
* Windows 7 had 448 security vulnerabilities discovered
* OSX had 1,143 security vulnerabilities discovered

.. making Android *by far* the safest way to access online banking if you’re going by CVE count.

All operating systems and computer systems will have vulnerabilities – but Android stands out from all the other commonly used operating systems as being the most secure!

” More vulnerabilities were discovered in Google Chrome last year than any other piece of core internet software – that’s according to research that also found 2014 clocked record numbers of zero-day flaws.”
The Register 26/3/2015

20/8/15 The Register
Yet another potentially serious security flaw has been revealed in Android.
This time the problem involves the mobile operating system’s ability to run more than one app at once – as opposed to its handling of multimedia messages, which was the crux of a cyber* of vulnerabilities last month.
The latest security blunder opens the door to criminals who want to spy on device owners, steal login details, install ransomware, and so on, it is claimed.
We’re told the vulnerability can be exploited to show a spoofed user interface, controlled by an attacker, when someone starts an app: the owner will not be aware that they are typing into another program masquerading as a legit application.
“The enabled attacks can affect all latest Android versions and all apps (including the most privileged system apps) installed on the system,” warned Chuangang Ren, a security researcher from Penn State University.
A paper on the vulnerability [PDF] – presented at the USENIX Security 15 conference in Washington DC last week – explained:”

Google says there is security in place to protect from this however one cannot but feel University researchers may have tested this before going into print so I am not necessarily believing Google when they talking of their system.

Overall the statistics provided by Tim illustrate that software is inherently buggy and therefore you should not be totally surprised that there are constsnt up-dates , some ahead of problems and some behind events.

I see the metric reported by Ofcom is “time taken” not “work done” or even “data transferred”.

So if it takes 3 times as long to browse the Argos pages when using a “postage stamp” for a screen that counts as “more usage” than if I do the task faster and more effectively on a desktop.

Also, if you count the time spent streaming audio, I am much more likely to listen to streamed audio using a smartphone (wot I can move around with me) than a desktop (that has to stay in one place).

Not piqued I hope.

I wonder how many of these ‘desktops’ are in fact laptops.

I guess a fair number. I use the desktop PC about 70%of the time and the rest is on a laptop that is virtually a desktop in the sense that it never gets unplugged or gets down from the table. Much prefer the desktop, however.

Which is more noisy? The laptop or the desktop?

As regards security for internet banking, is there really a fundamental difference between a smartphone and a PC or tablet with a 3G/4G data capabilty?

I need to use my computer to for banking and so far have not had a single problem. I don’t need to use my phone or tablet for these purposes, so I don’t see any reason to increase the risk.

duncan

Thanks for your reply.

I suppose my real question was whether or not normal “landline” internet is equally vulnerable to these types of “man-in-the-middle” attacks?

DerekP -the landline is not so vulnerable as the Web I dont use Internet banking precisely for the reasons above as I have been attacked for speaking the Truth but you should know all UK fibre goes through GCHQ they even admitted it if they were to start giving out details now that would cause massive trouble for them but as somebody who takes a great interest in security I will check deeper into this and if I can find verifiable info I will get back.

DerekP -initial checking reveals that as far as fibre is concerned it is very hard to “tap into ” not so for Copper which can easily be listened to or a household dect phone . It is possible on fibre but the equipment required is very expensive . This discounts -GCHQ-MI5-Special Branch- and yes our own brand of “secret police “and many other government depts. BT and its derivatives can also access your line . But as far as the general public you could only connect an induction pick up device to copper and it would be obvious to a BT repair man and you would be in trouble of a long prison sentence if the engineer gets MI5 etc to watch till somebody tries to remove it after getting info from it . New film coming out 2015/2016 called “Spied Upon ” getting good pre-reviews watch it.

Thanks Duncan,

Today’s hot web security news in the UK is “Customer data stolen from Ashley Madison, a dating website for married people who wish to cheat on their spouse, has reportedly been published.”

I think events such as this one show that much of the security risks to internet users come from servers being hacked, so whether or not individuals access the net only by cables or via the use of radio networks (wifi, cell phone, terrestrial microwave link, satellite communications etc) would be a secondary consideration.

In similar vein, it does not matter whether or not users’ local “terminals” are running Windows or other OSes – a successful server hack will be able to steal any and all private data on the server.

Hence my view is pretty much that it is OK to use smartphones for internet access. However, the more important question is the extent to which I would want to share (and thus risk) any private data in any such transactions. As the Ashley Madison hack shows, not all data breaches can be fixed just by changing passwords or credit card numbers.

Not all “the bad guys ” Dieseltaylor your “friendly ” global system computer company MS collects all your data including bank details /credit cards etc now on (due to updates ) Win 7/8/10 this particular point is big news on the web on a multitude of tech sites while MS has not denied it nor sued the websites. And as you say NSA/GCHQ back-door access to Windows as well as mobiles for hackers due to MS,s stubborn policy of having 100 % control of the Windows system by having back doors in the first place will alway make the Windows system a security risk ,proven by the never ending “updates” to stop hackers -no back doors very little hacking of the system program.