Last updated at Wed, 30 Aug 2017 02:08:33 GMT

'Tis the season to be jolly! Happy Holidays everyone!

While it's amazing that Christmas is next week, it's not amazing how much shopping I still need to do (shh, don't tell my wife).

Being that the season of gift giving is here it make sense to highlight a major request on many a letter to Santa Claus. Mobile devices! The focus this year, as in recent years, has been on the latest smartphones and tablets.There have been a few article put out this week regarding some of the security capabilities within these products, as both technology and security concerns continue to grow. This is all perfect timing because as the pile of gifts continues to build under your tree you are sure to see some of these products, and the corresponding exuberant faces, come Christmas morning.

An article in InformationWeek goes into detail on some of the AV options available for Android devices. They note while they aren't perfect products yet, i.e the ability to auto quarantine or delete malware, major strides have been made. The article spotlights a report in which the researches tried to install 500 apps from both Google Play and 3rd party app boutiques.  They tested for security features around anti-theft, parental controls, call blocking and backup capabilities. A few of the AV tools received perfect marks during the testing process, and the prospects continue to improve for comprehensive security on mobile devices. Another article from Computing indicates that Android and Java vulns will be the honeypots for cyber criminals in the coming new year, so the fact that there are some better options to combat these issues is great news.

Apple tends to keep things relatively simple as most of their security can be managed directly from their devices, no 3rd party products needed. With the inclusion of their gen-one fingerprinting tool, their security features could be considered ahead of the competition. There is a great article on Gizmag from earlier this week with instructions and pictures on how to best secure your iOS7 devices secure.