Ice Cream Sandwich security tastes better
There's more to Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) than just better camera controls, near-field communication support and the redesigned interface. Google has also been working on making the latest version of Android the safest yet, and several of the features are mighty sharp for a melty brick of ice cream.
The biggest of them all is that you'll be able to fully encrypt your ICS device. This means that all your data will be on lockdown, inaccessible even to you until you enter in the passcode or personal identification number. The benefit of this is obvious: if you lose your phone, you won't have to worry about remotely wiping it. The downside, of course, is that if you forget your password, you're locked out and the only way to get your phone back is to factory restore it. Expect to see renewed interest in cloud-based backup services for Android.
How apps manage authentication and secure sessions will get easier in ICS, thanks to a new keychain API that works in conjunction with the underlying encrypted storage. Any app will be able to use the keychain API to install and store user certificates and certificate authorities securely. It's a very technical change that will nevertheless allow apps to be written more safely from the get-go.
