What Makes iOS So Secure?

iOS is often considered to be more secure than its Android counterpart. what’s Apple doing to keep your devices safe?

- Alex Blake

Apple likes to tout security as one of the main selling points of its iOS devices, with features new and old supposedly giving it a notable advantage over its Android rivals. But is iOS really much stronger than Android when it comes to security? And if so, why?

On the one hand, Apple has implemented a series of impressive and often unique security features in iOS that make it that much harder to compromise. On the other hand, there are things out of Apple’s control that generally work in its favour, such as weaknesses in the Android operating system. Combined, these help to confer on iOS a not-undeserved reputation for security.

Face off

Before Apple’s iPhone 11 launch event in September, rumours were swirling that Apple would implement a form of under-screen Touch ID tech in its new phones to complement the Face ID system introduced with the iPhone X in 2017. In the end this never came to pass, and it always felt somewhat unlikely. After all, when Apple first unveiled Face ID, it compared it favourably to Touch ID: Touch ID had a one-in-50,000 chance of being fooled, the company said; Face ID, meanwhile, had a one-in-a-million chance. Why would Apple re-introduce a technology that was less secure than Face ID? Returning to Touch ID would be a step down in terms of security, going against one of the company’s core values. The only way it would ever re-implement Touch ID would be if it could somehow make it far more secure than Face ID.

Apple’s iOS devices already have a number of key components that help make them exceptionally secure. One of those is the Secure Enclave. Introduced in 2013 with the iPhone 5s, this is a separate area of the device’s processor that is used to safely store important data like login keys and the mathematical data used to create your Touch ID fingerprint and Face ID profile.