[tor-talk] How safe is smartphones today?

[anonymous coward]

Nathan Freitas:
> On 04/02/2014 07:01 PM, anonymous coward wrote:
>> Many people use TOR or secure ways to chat on smartphones.
> 
>> The last months have reveiled how hard secret services attack our
>> phones.
> 
>> This leads me to the question, how secure are our smartphones at
>> all?
> 
> It comes down to what are you afraid of?


Thanks to all for replying.

Well, I try not to get caught in the dragnet. Besides, I have no special
threat model or fear.

But, the situation could change quickly in certain situations without
your intention.

For example, I want to talk to political activists, I would like to
discuss with them, no matter if I share their views or not. This could
easily make you interesting for certain people. Sometimes just talking
to certain people could make you suspicious.

And this is my concern.

Is a mobile device safe to use for "sensitive" discussions?

In my view and recent events suggest you can become a target, although
you are just a small number. Just talking to people could cause this.

If I listen to the discussion in this thread, a mobile device is not
adequate at all to protect your data in case of a targetted attack.

I guess, the only safe way would be to use an offline device for storing
data and a second device for online communication. And a third device
may be necessary. There are devices, that connect with bluetooth to your
smartphone and do all all the encryption totally encapsulated in its own
little box.

I don´t have any current need for such steps, but want to know what is
the current state in security.

Thanks.
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