One of the world’s leading two-factor authentication firms has used search data to reveal which smartphone brands attract the highest interest from hackers worldwide. The platform examined the number of searches for terms like “how to hack an android phone”, “how to hack an iPhone”, “how to hack my girlfriends iphone” to determine the interest in hacking these smartphones over the last 12 months.
A world-leading two-factor-authentication platform has revealed which smartphones attract the highest interest from would-be hackers.
The platform, Rublon, analyzed the search data for each smartphone operating system and brand name to reveal which type of smartphone is most likely to receive an attempted hack.
Graphs, tables and more statistics can be found here – https://rublon.com/blog/hacking-ios-vs-android-which-generates-most-interest/
Interest in Hacking by Operating System
As can be seen there is significantly more interest in hacking the Android operating system over iOS.
- In 2021 there were 266,400 searches relating to hacking Android.
- There is an average of 22,200 searches per month relating to hacking Android.
- In 2021 there were 19,200 searches relating to hacking iOS.
- There is an average of 1,600 searches per month relating to hacking iOS.
- There is over 13 times more interest in hacking Android over iOS.
- Interest in hacking Android increased 49% in the last year.
- Interest in hacking iOS decreased 23% in the last year.
Breakout stats:
- People are 13 times more likely to search “how to hack my boyfriends phone” than “how to hack my girlfriends phone”.
- People are 17 times more likely to search “how to hack my husbands phone” than “how to hack my wifes phone”.
Interest in hacking Windows smartphones was pretty insignificant compared to Android and iOS which attracted to most interest from would-be hackers.
- Windows smartphones attracted 1,320 searches for the entire year. This is far less than Android or iOS attracts in a single month.
- Interest in hacking Windows smartphones decreased 50% in the past year.
Interest in Hacking by Brand
Perhaps unsurprisingly the iPhone attracted the most attention from would-be hackers.
- There were 726,000 searches related to hacking iPhones in 2021.
- Interest in hacking the iPhone increased 22% in 2021.
Samsung smartphones attracted far less interest from hackers, receiving only 15,600 searches in the entire last year. This is about a quarter of the hacking-related searches the iPhone gets in a single month.
There is little interest in hacking Huawei, LG, Motorola, Nokia, and Sony smartphones. They are included here for completeness. All 5 of these brands attract less than 5,000 searches related to hacking each year.
Data and Methodology
The table below shows the interest in each keyword over time. The average monthly searches and the yearly searches are also shown.
Each “keyword” in the table is an amalgam of all similar keywords. For example, the search volume for “hack iphone” includes “how to hack an iphone”, “how to hack my girlfriends iphone”, “hack an iphone”, “hack my iphone” and tens of derivatives. The search volume is the total number of searches including all of the derivatives for each “keyword”.
Michal Wendrowski, Managing Director and founder of Rublon, said,
“With over 1,032,000 searches relating to hacking specific operating systems and smartphone brands, it shows the importance of keeping yourself safe online. We hope this research shows people how prevalent the interest in hacking phones is. It is important to note that not all of these searches will result in a hack. That said, most successful hackers do not hack a single phone, they hack thousands at any one time.”
Rublon is a user authentication platform that enables companies and consumers to protect their information using multi-factor authentication (MFA) for logins to networks, servers, and applications. Users approve logins by tapping a security key or a button on their mobile phone, after entering credentials. Deploying Rublon MFA helps organizations to comply with data protection regulations like HIPAA and GDPR. Rublon’s mission is to ensure that all people are able to keep their data safely protected online, without worry or stress.