With each day passing through, more and more security vulnerabilities & privacy measurements are getting exploited on mobile operating systems as well as applications. We all know that Android offers an open-source platform and allows users or developers to customize their Android devices using third-party tools, apps, bootloader unlocking, rooting, modules, and more. Recently, Apple has mentioned that Android app sideloading has up to 15-47x more malware than iOS that risks the security and privacy of user data.
That’s why Apple is still continuing to push back against app sideloading on iOS to protect its users’ data as much as possible. It’s not only Apple but also other cybersecurity agencies are recommending that having third-party apps from not reliable sources may cause security & privacy compromises. Plenty of recommendations are coming from the US Department of Homeland Security, Norton, Interpol, Kaspersky, European Agency for Cybersecurity, NIST, and more agencies for years.
Apple has circulated a PDF file online that includes a 28-page full document that’s named “Building a Trusted Ecosystem for Millions of Apps – A threat analysis of sideloading (October 2021)”. Here Apple has mentioned that “mobile malware harms consumers, companies, developers, and advertisers” which seems to be true enough for the mobile device users who were affected until now.
Apple has also claimed that even if iOS users don’t want to sideload apps if iOS was forced to open the ecosystem rather than a closed-platform, it’ll affect its users in several ways. So, it’s not like that if you’re not sideloading third-party apps on your mobile then you’re safe. It’s always better to keep your accounts or profiles, transactions, contacts, chats, documents, media files, etc in an encrypted way to get rid of additional security risks whatsoever.
In that scenario, iOS users also may fall into the sideloading of apps because the app isn’t available on the Apple App Store officially. So, they won’t have any choice rather than sideloading apps externally. That’s why Apple kept iOS and even other of its operating systems as a closed environment. The latest Apple report also mentions that recent Android trojans like Banker.BR, TeaBot, BlackRock, etc that could steal your login credentials from 450 online services and imitates the popular Clubhouse app.
