Is Android is More Secure Than Windows and iOS? (Premium)

So here's one that will leave you wondering: A new Gartner report assesses today's mobile OS and device platforms and determines that Android is the most secure.

This explains why Google is touting the report, I suppose. But because Gartner's Mobile OSs and Device Security: A Comparison of Platforms isn't freely available, all I can go on is the Google blog post and an associated video, in which Gartner analyst Patrick Hevesi reviews the security capabilities of Android, iOS, and Windows 10.

To be clear, this report and video are enterprise-focused, and Gartner does find that platform enhancements aimed specifically at that audience do make a difference. But the video is worth watching. And the results are still pretty fascinating.

I used the graphic above as a way to (perhaps inaccurately) "score" the relative security of the newest versions of Android, iOS, and Windows 10 cited by the report, plus a few related enhancements such as Android on Pixel, Samsung Knox, and Windows 10 on Surface Pro. I attributed 2 points to every security feature that was marked "Strong," 1 point to each that was "Average," and 0 points to those that were "Weak."

And looking just at the base platforms, Android comes out on top: Android 8 scores 52, compared to 46 for Windows 10 and 34 for iOS 11.

Looking at what I call the platform enhancements, Android still comes out on top: Android 8 running on Pixel and Samsung Knox 2.9 both score 54, and Windows 10 on Surface Pro scores 47.

What's most interesting about this to me is that these results are literally the opposite of what I would expect: I believe that iOS is the most secure platform, followed by Windows 10 and then Android.

It's possible that my opinion is perhaps closer to the truth when it comes to consumers: With the exception of Pixel and a handful of Android One handsets, most Android devices are not updated regularly. But iOS and Windows 10 are, and these updates are compulsory on Windows 10 for consumers.

But this is still interesting data. And even if you exclude the section on "corporate-managed security," as in the graphic at the very top, Android still scores ahead of iOS and Windows 10 using Gartner's criteria: Android 8 has 29 points, compared to 25 for Windows 10 and 19 for iOS 11.

I'll just file this one away under "things that make you go huh."