Your Android Is Safe

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/fbi-android-phone-lock/ 

In recent years, the popularity and power of smartphones has been growing exponentially. The two largest competitors in the smart phone market, in terms of software, are Google's Android and Apple's iOS. Since smartphones are basically miniature web-enabled computers, the security of the information that is stored on one's smartphone is obviously a huge issue. While we often find that security solutions offered by major companies are subpar, in the case of Android, it has been proven that its built in security feature is quite good.

Android's built in security mechanism, which prevents any data on your phone from being accessed, is pattern based. It consists of a 3 x 3 grid, and the owner of the phone initially programs in a pattern in a "connect-the-dots" fashion. Any time the user wants to unlock the phone, the correct pattern must be drawn on the phone screen. If the pattern is attempted and failed several times, the pattern mechanism will be "locked out," and the user will be required to enter the Google email and password that corresponds to the phone. Not only is the pattern-based mechanism extremely difficult to guess, but the lockout feature prevents someone from attempting to unlock the phone by using brute force to try every different possibility.

The article specifically talks about a case in which forensics experts from the FBI were attempting to unlock a Samsung Exhibit II phone (which runs Android) that is suspected to belong to a San Diego-based prostitution pimp, but were unable to crack the password. The security of an effective built-in security mechanism, such as Android's pattern-based mechanism, is critical because many states allow authorities access to a suspect's mobile phone upon arrest. This can help prevent innocent people, or who people who have been arrested for crimes that do not require invasion of privacy to determine innocence, from having their personal information looked at. Currently, in the case in question, the FBI is attempting to have Google override the lockout feature so that they can access the phone.