I want to share this post because I was disappointed to see this popular smartphone cracking tool works very well across Android versions and devices while iPhone enjoys relative security.
The graphic also shows premium devices specifically are vulnerable to their tools, so one cannot argue that the problem is funding or cheap devices getting owned because of dumb changes by the vendor – premium devices fare not much better. Even Google controlling the hardware and the software of their Pixel line remains vulnerable to data extraction while the latest iPhone versions aren’t.
To me, this sounds like the state of Android physical security might be inferior. Why? What can be done to fix this? Perhaps is it because Android is more popular globally so they get more work targeting Android?
It could also be coincidental that at the time the documents leaked, the iPhone stuff was being finished up and there is actually not that much difference if you have an attacker who has lots of time and money.
EDIT: Removed wrong information. EDIT: Added more material for discussion.
As you sort of alluded to timing makes a big difference because it’s a cat and mouse game. The last I had heard iPhones were pretty easy targets but some of the top end Android phones weren’t. iOS 17.4 is relatively new.