Anything specifically missing on android side except the PR? Seriously asking if I'm missing something. The nexus series has comparable crypto hw and similar options for encryption + wiping.
Two things come to mind. First an equivalent of the secure enclave. Second a single company that is willing to go this far to protect its users. For Samsung this is complicated because both Google and Samsung are involved, and Samsung is not a US company so I'd expect them to cave in under pressure from the US govt more easily.
Edit: a Nexus device bought directly from Google with the right hw may address both points.
I have been looking at the Snapdragon 820 and it at least on that level, it does not seem that android devices should mis anything. The new Sense Id is an improved Touch Id, and I mean that both in terms of the finger print sensor itself, as well as the hardware protection itself. They implemented full UAF in the SecureMSM for the authentification. The best thing is that this is exposed to the layers above and can be leveriged in the growing fido ecosystem.
The major issue with android systems does not seem to be lacking software and hardware, but rather the unwillingnes of providers to push best practices as defaults to all users.
I somewhat agree and somewhat disagree with your analysis of the politics. Their are both advantages and disadvantages of both situations
> For Samsung this is complicated because both Google and Samsung are involved, and Samsung is not a US company so I'd expect them to cave in under pressure from the US govt more easily.
To many Americans, Apple is the example of American innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, and a proof that the American model works. Apple employs 10s of thousands of Americans directly, and probably provides jobs for 100s of thousands indirectly. Going too aggressive on Apple, e.g. at the level where executives could be charged in court, or products embargoed, would be a decidedly unpopular move with many voters and politicians. Samsung is a much easier target here.
Also as an American company, Apple can legitimately enter the democratic debate, see the calls it makes to congress. Samsung can't really do that. Imagine Samgsung putting out press release quoting the founding fathers or referring to the first amendment. That would not be credible.
You are right to a certain extent! But lets not forget that Samsung is a huge company too and is registered as per US norms. So the American executives of Samsung would be very much comfortable referring to either of them.
I'll repost a snippet from a post by merhdada that hints at the root of one of the problems with android security:
"This can happen only because of a design flaw in the security architecture of Android (L). Unlike iOS and like traditional PCs, the disk encryption key is always in memory when the device is booted and nothing is really protected if you get a device in that state. It's an all-or-nothing proposition."
Please read the entire thread, and check the links referenced in that thread, for information on how issues like these are mitigated.
That's only one issue though. There are a few more.
But none of that even matters a lot of times ... you really won't need to hack an android phone... because the data is also on corporate servers. So the FBI could get at it in any case most of the time.
Yeah, the problem is that Google's whole business model depends on uploading all your unencrypted data to their cloud, whereas Apple could probably decide to encrypt everything in iCloud so not even they could read it if any government/hacker came looking.
