Samsung: Smartphones are the Most Secure Device When Using Cryptocurrency

[Elmer1]

According to Samsung, the $290 billion behemoth which dominates every major industry in South Korea, smartphones are the safest device to use when transacting using cryptocurrency

Smartphones Over Laptops

Smartphone wallets such as Blockchain and Jaxx are the go-to applications the majority of cryptocurrency users utilize to send and receive payments with digital assets.

Joel Snyder, a senior IT consultant, a contributor to Samsung Insights, explained in a recent paper that smartphones are significantly more secure than laptops and other devices, because of the presence of the Trusted Execution Environment(TEE)

Most smartphones have a native environment called the TEE, which operates as a separate execution environment with its own memory and storage, isolated from the device. Hence, not even the operating system (OS) like Android can reach into the TEE and potentially initiate alterations in its memory.

In an event of a hacking attack or a security breach, attackers cannot possibly break into the TEE and attempt to steal data such as the private keys of cryptocurrency wallets because the TEE exists completely independent of the device.

On laptops or computers that rely on conventional persistent storage units such as a hard disk or an SSD, a hacker can easily break into the storage and steal valuable financial information, including data pertaining to cryptocurrency wallets, that could lead to the loss of funds and holdings stored in digital assets.

Snyder explained:

“This is why smartphones have an edge over laptops and desktops for cryptocurrency wallets: without the benefits of the hardware-based TEE, the keys are more vulnerable. There is a significant caveat: a naïve wallet developer might choose to simply store the keys on the normal internal storage of the phone, in which case there’s little additional protection from using the smartphone platform. Or the wallet itself might be malware, in which case all bets are off. But with the right wallet leveraging the benefits of smartphone TEE, there’s no place safer to store your money.”

[mk4]

I always thought smartphones were a lot safer due to most likely less malware targeted at them(though not 100% sure), unless your phone is rooted and you're giving a lot of special permissions to random scammy apps. Though I've always though up to date iPhones were more "secure" compared to Samsung phones or android phones in general.

Nothing beats a hardware wallet over-all in terms of security+ease of use though.

[wormgummy019]

According to Samsung, the $290 billion behemoth which dominates every major industry in South Korea, smartphones are the safest device to use when transacting using cryptocurrency

Smartphones Over Laptops

Smartphone wallets such as Blockchain and Jaxx are the go-to applications the majority of cryptocurrency users utilize to send and receive payments with digital assets.

Joel Snyder, a senior IT consultant, a contributor to Samsung Insights, explained in a recent paper that smartphones are significantly more secure than laptops and other devices, because of the presence of the Trusted Execution Environment(TEE)

Most smartphones have a native environment called the TEE, which operates as a separate execution environment with its own memory and storage, isolated from the device. Hence, not even the operating system (OS) like Android can reach into the TEE and potentially initiate alterations in its memory.

In an event of a hacking attack or a security breach, attackers cannot possibly break into the TEE and attempt to steal data such as the private keys of cryptocurrency wallets because the TEE exists completely independent of the device.

On laptops or computers that rely on conventional persistent storage units such as a hard disk or an SSD, a hacker can easily break into the storage and steal valuable financial information, including data pertaining to cryptocurrency wallets, that could lead to the loss of funds and holdings stored in digital assets.

Snyder explained:

“This is why smartphones have an edge over laptops and desktops for cryptocurrency wallets: without the benefits of the hardware-based TEE, the keys are more vulnerable. There is a significant caveat: a naïve wallet developer might choose to simply store the keys on the normal internal storage of the phone, in which case there’s little additional protection from using the smartphone platform. Or the wallet itself might be malware, in which case all bets are off. But with the right wallet leveraging the benefits of smartphone TEE, there’s no place safer to store your money.”

I agree that smartphones are the most secure device to be when using crptocurrency. Smartphones has the ability to secure your accounts and also in smartphones you can avoid visiting some websites and there is only few ads in smartphones.

[drm]

Snyder explained:

“This is why smartphones have an edge over laptops and desktops for cryptocurrency wallets: without the benefits of the hardware-based TEE, the keys are more vulnerable. There is a significant caveat: a naïve wallet developer might choose to simply store the keys on the normal internal storage of the phone, in which case there’s little additional protection from using the smartphone platform. Or the wallet itself might be malware, in which case all bets are off. But with the right wallet leveraging the benefits of smartphone TEE, there’s no place safer to store your money.”

So how does samsung have the advantage, the right wallet can be installed on any smartphone? 

[12tribes]

The idea of a trust environment is only as limited in functionality, value and effectiveness on the basis of the fact that the flaws (if any) are yet  to be seen and exploited. the idea of using a hard or cold wallet still overall out performs the conventional TEE which is taking a wallet that has assets off prying eyes. The Samsung's idea is yet to be refuted or corroborated by any smartphone maker and until then, this remains a statement, not a fact.

[tegarp90]

According to Samsung, the $290 billion behemoth which dominates every major industry in South Korea, smartphones are the safest device to use when transacting using cryptocurrency

Smartphones Over Laptops

Smartphone wallets such as Blockchain and Jaxx are the go-to applications the majority of cryptocurrency users utilize to send and receive payments with digital assets.

Joel Snyder, a senior IT consultant, a contributor to Samsung Insights, explained in a recent paper that smartphones are significantly more secure than laptops and other devices, because of the presence of the Trusted Execution Environment(TEE)

Most smartphones have a native environment called the TEE, which operates as a separate execution environment with its own memory and storage, isolated from the device. Hence, not even the operating system (OS) like Android can reach into the TEE and potentially initiate alterations in its memory.

In an event of a hacking attack or a security breach, attackers cannot possibly break into the TEE and attempt to steal data such as the private keys of cryptocurrency wallets because the TEE exists completely independent of the device.

On laptops or computers that rely on conventional persistent storage units such as a hard disk or an SSD, a hacker can easily break into the storage and steal valuable financial information, including data pertaining to cryptocurrency wallets, that could lead to the loss of funds and holdings stored in digital assets.

Snyder explained:

“This is why smartphones have an edge over laptops and desktops for cryptocurrency wallets: without the benefits of the hardware-based TEE, the keys are more vulnerable. There is a significant caveat: a naïve wallet developer might choose to simply store the keys on the normal internal storage of the phone, in which case there’s little additional protection from using the smartphone platform. Or the wallet itself might be malware, in which case all bets are off. But with the right wallet leveraging the benefits of smartphone TEE, there’s no place safer to store your money.”

It depends on the connection used.
If the connection is already tracked by hackers, it's not possible for hackers to find out our identity and unlock our wallet
We should change our connection daily for safety

[pacman7331]

Totally agree with it. Personally, I don't believe in Myetherwallet and other ETH online wallet. Smartphone wallet is far better than that weak Online Wallet. Samsung joined in the cryptocurrency platform, maybe a new revolution will make.

[jseverson]

So how does samsung have the advantage, the right wallet can be installed on any smartphone? 

To be completely fair, it didn't seem like he singled out Samsung lol. It just so happens that the writer of the piece was a Samsung contributor.

And I don't know about this. I feel like a proper PC set up would be safer just because it's more unlikely to get lost or stolen. They can be just as hard to break into with proper precautions.

But yeah, if we're talking about the most secure device for crypto, it has to be hardware wallets and air-gapped wallets. It has to be noted that you can easily set up an air-gapped wallet with a smartphone too lol.

[Renai0925]

Safety is actually relative to how much you put in to your due diligence. May it be desktop, laptop, cellphone, online wallets, cold storage wallets, etc. Sure some of them are more secure than most. But it is still possible to steal information physically relatively easy with your smartphone.

[vy99]

There's so many factors that go into the security of a device. I can be on a laptop and be more secure than many people who use a smartphone. In general I do see the benefits of using a smartphone...however I'd go with an iOS device.

[Papsie]

Yeah I am seeing a lot of information and discussion about the credibility of smartphones when it comes to cryptocurrency but still no one can give some proof that smartphones and the most secured device when you are doing crypto. Those conclusions are just came from their personal experience.

[Elmer1]

Snyder explained:

“This is why smartphones have an edge over laptops and desktops for cryptocurrency wallets: without the benefits of the hardware-based TEE, the keys are more vulnerable. There is a significant caveat: a naïve wallet developer might choose to simply store the keys on the normal internal storage of the phone, in which case there’s little additional protection from using the smartphone platform. Or the wallet itself might be malware, in which case all bets are off. But with the right wallet leveraging the benefits of smartphone TEE, there’s no place safer to store your money.”

So how does samsung have the advantage, the right wallet can be installed on any smartphone?  

Did you know (TEE) ? OR The Trusted Execution Environment  is a secure area of the main processor of a smart phone (or any connected device including tablets, set-top boxes and televisions). It guarantees code and data loaded inside to be protected with respect to confidentiality and integrity. The TEE as an isolated execution environment is providing security features such as isolated execution, integrity of Trusted Applications along with confidentiality of their assets. In general terms, the TEE offers an execution space that provides a higher level of security than a rich mobile operating system (mobile OS) and more functionality than a 'secure element' (SE)
Samsung competitor HTC is developing a smartphone that it is billing as the world’s “first native blockchain phone.”

In December 2016, a research team at the prestigious Cornell University led by professor Emin Gun Sirer first teased the idea of scaling bitcoin with secure hardware, using TEEs. The Cornell research team went further than using the native TEE environment in smartphones, and built a technology called Teechan on top of TEEs present in the CPUs and Software Guard Extensions of Intel. Since TEEs exist independent of whichever device it operates within, and it can process transactions off-chain that are then batched into larger transactions for on-chain settlement, scaling solutions based on these trusted environments have seen significant progress by processing more than 2,480 transactions per second.

[matchi2011]

Safety is actually relative to how much you put in to your due diligence. May it be desktop, laptop, cellphone, online wallets, cold storage wallets, etc. Sure some of them are more secure than most. But it is still possible to steal information physically relatively easy with your smartphone.

It's always the end users who can create extra precautions avoiding being hacked but the idea inside this topic is quite informative there's some good edge if you are well aware on how to take advantage and maximize features that you can find from smart phones which is not present from desktops and laptops we just need to utilize it and take it as an advantage.

[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

Go to /r/trezor and ask the Trezor developers how they feel about the security of a TEE vs hardware wallet. Same with /r/ledgerwallet to be fair.

The most secure way to use bitcoin with a smartphone is to install the Mycelium app and use a hardware wallet with OTG cable. You really don't want your private keys on a phone TEE or not.

[Elmer1]

Safety is actually relative to how much you put in to your due diligence. May it be desktop, laptop, cellphone, online wallets, cold storage wallets, etc. Sure some of them are more secure than most. But it is still possible to steal information physically relatively easy with your smartphone.

It's always the end users who can create extra precautions avoiding being hacked but the idea inside this topic is quite informative there's some good edge if you are well aware on how to take advantage and maximize features that you can find from smart phones which is not present from desktops and laptops we just need to utilize it and take it as an advantage.

Thats grate .   you take my point in this topic

[PeRo]

Well, smartphones generaly catch less viruses and malware than laptops and desktop computers. I store my own Bitcoin in my smartphone and I don't have any problems with it. The only problem could occur if you root your device and give root permission to apps downloaded from some shady sites. That's why I didn't root my phone and even if I do I will check the sites I download from.

[mk4]

Snyder explained:

“This is why smartphones have an edge over laptops and desktops for cryptocurrency wallets: without the benefits of the hardware-based TEE, the keys are more vulnerable. There is a significant caveat: a naïve wallet developer might choose to simply store the keys on the normal internal storage of the phone, in which case there’s little additional protection from using the smartphone platform. Or the wallet itself might be malware, in which case all bets are off. But with the right wallet leveraging the benefits of smartphone TEE, there’s no place safer to store your money.”

So how does samsung have the advantage, the right wallet can be installed on any smartphone? 

The answer you're looking for is already in the statement you quoted. Maybe try reading it again. You can install certain wallets on pretty much any smartphone but it doesn't automatically mean it's secure. There's a lot more to information security than just the wallet app itself.

[pushups44]

I still think security should be of the utmost concern to those using smartphones for cryptocurrency transactions, so users should download a reputable virus scanning app and be cautious about using the right security features with the phone. Where there's a will among hackers, they will eventually find a way to exploit the device.

[Pursuer]

very interesting information about TEE, I never knew about what it is before.

but your chosen subject here is still wrong though. the "most secure" device for using cryptocurrencies will always remain cold storage when you device doesn't have any access to the internet and also it can't be lost because you carry it around

[hardtime]

I'd have to say this is probably pretty true, but I only use the words 'pretty true' for a big reason. The reason is the given which I'm going to propose, which is that people are using reputable wallets, which don't have access to their keys, and they ensure to save their paper backup somewhere. Now that that's out of the way, I would come to the same conclusion as OP because their aren't as many targets of hacks / malware / crypto coin stealing operations on mobile as their are on PC. But I must say that something like this will change if enough people are holding a shit ton of money on their phones instead of wallets on their computers.