3 ms·

I think where they are going with that is that this sounds suspiciously like a “people problem” and not a technical one though it is attempting to solve it via

I think where they are going with that is that this sounds suspiciously like a “people problem” and not a technical one though it is attempting to solve it via technology. For some reason desktops let software do whatever and they don’t seem to have near as much an issue as mobile OSes. IMHO, it’s the fact that there’s a (basically, by default) a single market driven by (basically, by default) a single search engine to locate software. The desktop market, is largely NOT driven by a single market or search engine. With the “single market” if a malicious actor can game the search engine for even a day, they can install on (potentially) millions of devices. However, with the ‘ole distribution model, it’s much harder to game.

pjmlp 5y ago
Which is why the desktop market has tons of garbage anti-virus and PC cleaning software, trying to fix the cowboy land it turned into.
vlovich123 5y ago
There's reasons to be suspicious but it's also important to remember that mobile phones see much deeper penetration. About 84% of the world's population has a smartphone. Annually, ~1.6 billion phones are shipped vs 275 million PCs. With scale comes new challenges and attack vectors.
- tentacleuno 5y ago
  > Annually, ~1.6 billion phones are shipped vs 275 million PCs. This is most likely because people do not have to buy a PC every 3 years. Phones are treated as disposable items, whereas with a desktop, you can open it, clean it, change parts etc. I can even change the CPU in my laptop if I wanted to.
  - vlovich123 5y ago
    That’s one theory but one that doesn’t hold up by virtue of the fact that 83% of all humanity has a phone. The penetration for laptops/desktops never reached that high. We can assume both as having reached steady state and that’s mostly replacement rate (not quite but almost). Cell phones are more popular for obvious reasons: full access to internet at all times, TCO is drastically smaller across the board (upfront cheaper, cheaper internet, etc), and entire structures are built around them (many critical services go app first if not even app only). I think you’re applying a very western bias in your analysis.
  - pjmlp 5y ago
    Most people also don't buy a smartphone every three years, they use them until they either die, or get stolen.
    - saurik 5y ago
      Both of which happen much more often than with laptops, at least in part because they are treated as being more disposable, but maybe more directly because they are smaller.
mwcampbell 5y ago
> For some reason desktops let software do whatever and they don’t seem to have near as much an issue as mobile OSes. I think this may be a case of rose-colored glasses. How many PCs were and are a complete mess because Windows both is a free-for-all and is (or was) the largest attack target? Sure, we know how to keep our desktop systems sane, but most people don't.
- raxxorrax 5y ago
  Then you also need to look at the average persons phone. If you activate any network connection, it supplies the contents of your latest stool sample and sends it to 5 unclosed apps at least. The data exfiltration is not comparable and exposure of personal information also extends to contacts this person has in their phone. It is a much more hostile environment and not really clean at all.

pjmlp 5y ago

Which is why the desktop market has tons of garbage anti-virus and PC cleaning software, trying to fix the cowboy land it turned into.

vlovich123 5y ago

There's reasons to be suspicious but it's also important to remember that mobile phones see much deeper penetration. About 84% of the world's population has a smartphone. Annually, ~1.6 billion phones are shipped vs 275 million PCs. With scale comes new challenges and attack vectors.

tentacleuno 5y ago
> Annually, ~1.6 billion phones are shipped vs 275 million PCs. This is most likely because people do not have to buy a PC every 3 years. Phones are treated as disposable items, whereas with a desktop, you can open it, clean it, change parts etc. I can even change the CPU in my laptop if I wanted to.
- vlovich123 5y ago
  That’s one theory but one that doesn’t hold up by virtue of the fact that 83% of all humanity has a phone. The penetration for laptops/desktops never reached that high. We can assume both as having reached steady state and that’s mostly replacement rate (not quite but almost). Cell phones are more popular for obvious reasons: full access to internet at all times, TCO is drastically smaller across the board (upfront cheaper, cheaper internet, etc), and entire structures are built around them (many critical services go app first if not even app only). I think you’re applying a very western bias in your analysis.
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Most people also don't buy a smartphone every three years, they use them until they either die, or get stolen.
  - saurik 5y ago
    Both of which happen much more often than with laptops, at least in part because they are treated as being more disposable, but maybe more directly because they are smaller.

mwcampbell 5y ago

> For some reason desktops let software do whatever and they don’t seem to have near as much an issue as mobile OSes. I think this may be a case of rose-colored glasses. How many PCs were and are a complete mess because Windows both is a free-for-all and is (or was) the largest attack target? Sure, we know how to keep our desktop systems sane, but most people don't.

raxxorrax 5y ago
Then you also need to look at the average persons phone. If you activate any network connection, it supplies the contents of your latest stool sample and sends it to 5 unclosed apps at least. The data exfiltration is not comparable and exposure of personal information also extends to contacts this person has in their phone. It is a much more hostile environment and not really clean at all.