By: Clay Miller, CTO, SyncDog
The iOS 13 rollout has been tough for everyone. It has been plagued from the start with bugs and security vulnerabilities.
While it is easy to blame Apple for its lapses, the real question becomes whether or not we should rely on the operating system to guarantee security. The answer, of course, is a resounding “no”.
The Push and Pull Relationship Between Flexibility and Security
An operating system has to provide a lot of functionality, not the least of which is a platform for code execution. After all, what good is an operating system with no applications? The risk is the balance between providing programmers with a flexible system on which to execute instructions while at the same time trying to ensure that code is not attempting to do something insecure.
If you ramp up enforced operating system security, you will automatically be dialing back flexibility in programming applications. Blocking the ability to run low-level code may block applications from running legitimate functions.
It is a precarious balance compounded by the natural problem of not being able to predict every possible code path that can be executed on the operating system. This leads to things like zero-day exploits. These are holes that no one knew existed until someone discovered it (usually too late).
Taking Your Own Security Measures
We cannot be too critical of Apple or any other operating system for that matter. We simply need to adjust our expectations to be more in line with reality. Instead of expecting the operating system to protect our data, we should assume that Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Linux, Unix, and so on, are all susceptible to nefarious code execution. That’s actually okay because we have other tools that are geared towards providing security.
Secure Containers
Secure.Systems containers have a focused purpose and that purpose is data protection. This security solution is built on top of the operating system and is designed to protect data at rest and in transit, even if the operating system is compromised. It’s a solution that helps overcome the security flaws of operating systems such as iOS 13.
The Bottom Line?
Be ready when iOS 14 rolls around! When issues are identified (and there will be issues), you can rest easy knowing your data will be unaffected when leveraging Secure.Systems.
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To learn more about SyncDog’s Secure.Systems capabilities and how we can help with iOS 13 issues, get in touch with our team at sales@syncdog.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for the latest news and updates.
