I was wondering if anyone could share any light on which of these they consider as the most secure. I will be travelling to some sensitive countries and wanted to keep sensitive data for work projects safe.
GrapheneOS disables the USB port at the hardware level which I don’t believe iOS does. So a Pixel with GrapheneOS installed would be the most secure, and in Cellebrite leaks we’ve seen that GrapheneOS is able to hold up where the stock Pixel OS and iOS are defeated.
iOS has been steadily improving though, so it’s possible that they’ve patched issues that have been exploited in the past. Not sure if it’s still vulnerable, but I can’t imagine that companies like Cellebrite would allow iOS to stay un-exploited for long.
2 Likes
Thank you
You’ll always be safer on GrapheneOS.
3 Likes
Get a freshly reset burner gadget. I am trying to travel again and I just saw on TSA’s website that “they may ask you to power on your device”, whatever that means.
A well meaning agent may let you go as soon as it works and did not heat up and explode. A bad one might “borrow” it.
I don’t know enough of the modern android ecosystem if malware can survive a factory reset. We can speculate that a malware could be specifically crafted to survive a factory reset. But I am not aware of any malware that had capability in the news from the past.
Its funny that iOS might protect you from the US government but maybe not from other government that it is actively seeking to curry favor for, like China - so do keep that in mind.
All in all in you will be probably be okay if your burner phone is up to date including the firmware.