The iPhone's Success has made it Less Secure

Note: This was originally posted in a discussion as part of a Boston University Metropolitan College graduate-level course in E-commerce with Professor Jason Shapiro.

As an iPhone owner, the increase in security breaches on the iPhone is a major concern. The more we learn about technology and security, it is clear that Apple products are not immune to security breaches and attacks. However, Apple has successfully built a solid reputation and has actively marketed their strength in security as a differentiator against the competition (Benner & Mozur, 2016). Even this case study gives further credence to Apple’s greater security over Android with 97% of malware targeting Android and Google not having as much control over the platform as Apple.

Many users of Apple products (myself certainly included) tout their security and privacy. Mac computers are likely to continue to be more secure due to the disparity in adoption between Mac and Windows based computers (Liu, 2021). Since there are more users, hackers are more likely to target Windows computers. However, this also means that the iPhone is less likely to be ignored. The iPhone was a game changing product that continues to command a huge market share (Molla, 2017). As a result, iPhones will be targeted.The apparent increasing success rate of that targeting is distressing, with 2015 seeing more malware affect iOS devices than the previous five years combined (Laudon & Traver, 2017).

However, Apple continues to stress security and privacy as key selling points for the iPhone, and their actions in this space will also begin to affect e-commerce in general. Apple recently announced it will require vendors to request individual’s permission to collect their data. With Google also announcing they will no longer support third party tracking cookies in the near future, online advertising is likely to experience major change in the near future (Goswami, 2021).

References

Benner, K., Mozur, P. (2016, February 20). Apple Sees Value in its Stand to Protect Security. New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2021 from: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/technology/apple-sees-value-in-privacy-vow.html

Goswami, S. (2021, February 10). What Apple’s Privacy Changes Mean for the Tech Industry. Forbes. Retrieved February 11, 2021 from:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/10/what-apples-privacy-changes-mean-for-the-tech-industry/?sh=4367deef6944

Laudon, K., Traver, C. (2017). E-Commerce. London: Pearson Education.

Liu, M. (2021). MET AD 648 - E-commerce: Facilitator Session 1 Cybersecurity.

Molla, R. ( 2017, June 26). How Apple’s iPhone changed the world: 10 years in 10 charts. Vox. Retrieved from February 11, 2021 from: https://www.vox.com/2017/6/26/15821652/iphone-apple-10-year-anniversary-launch-mobile-stats-smart-phone-steve-jobs