If you’re an Android user, listen up! By now you should know that out-of-date software can be a breeding ground for new malware to enter into your life. But, TechRepublic drives the point home with a recent article highlighting a report on a new piece of Android malware that’s being discovered just about every 10 seconds. That means that over the course of 2017, this malware is likely to infect 3.5 million Android files!
The main reason this particular malware is spreading like wildfire is that many Android users are not updating their software regularly. In fact, the April 2017 Android developer dashboard shows that 32 percent of users are still running Android 5.0 or 5.1 Lollipop, and 31.2% are running Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The report also sites unsecured third party application downloads as another entry point for corrupted software.
For more on the report and the rapid spread of this malware, read the full article on TechRepublic. To learn more about Android security news and tips from WatchGuard, click here.
The problem is less about the users not updating their Android phones and more about the phone vendors locking the update process such that they cannot be updated via Google’s infrastructure, Google continues to do the right thing by their Nexus brand. For example, my Nexus 5X and 9 devices have v7.1.1 and the May 2017 patches, but my newer Sony (and Sony is not the only one doing this) phone is on Android 6 and the 5 January 2017 patch (which came out last month). When I use the Sony system updates option, it tells me that I have the latest available system updates, I own (or rather my business owns) these phones, and I understand that people who have phone plans with the telcos have patch levels dating back to when they bought the phone (within the past two years). The whole Android landscape needs a shake up or Google needs to take control of the operating system updates and upgrades (like Apple) from the other manufacturers. Only when every Android phone user is given the option to update or upgrade their phone can they really be blamed for the poor security of their devices.