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Android Security in 2016 is a Mess

posted by mrpg on Tuesday December 06 2016, @09:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the and-wait-for-2017 dept.

"exec" writes:

Your phone probably contains banking, payment and personal information that can be remotely stolen via numerous known and unknown bugs in the Android software. This is attractive to criminals.

Vendors (LG, Samsung, Xiaomi, etc.), after selling you their phone, have no incentive to keep your phone's software up to date with Google's fixes. Your Android phone is probably out of date and therefore a gaping security hole through which attackers can steal your stuff from the safety of their own laptops.

In short, your phone could be hacked wide open from afar through a single innocent-looking email, MMS or web-page.

In the end the recommendations are: buy an Iphone, stick to Google phones or install a custom ROM.

Original URL: Android security in 2016 is a mess

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @07:34AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @07:34AM (#438241)

    Windows 10 phone is officially the smartphone equivalent of gear stick in american cars.

  • (Score: 1) by ilsa on Wednesday December 07 2016, @04:35PM

    by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday December 07 2016, @04:35PM (#438408)

    Windows 10 phone is officially the smartphone equivalent of gear stick in american cars.

    I have to disagree. Unlike Windows mobile, there are compelling reasons to want manual transmission.

    • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Thursday December 08 2016, @09:19AM

      by davester666 (155) on Thursday December 08 2016, @09:19AM (#438673)

      Still the best way to get an STD...definitely the most fun.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @08:37PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @08:37PM (#438501)
    It's not the theft deterrent you might think. A long time ago in a shitty apartment parking lot far, far away, I had a 1990s Honda, and the girl next door had one that was identical in almost every way (same trim level, same year, same color, similar condition) except mine was a stick shift and hers was an automatic. One morning when I out to go to work, mine was gone and hers was still there.
    (ok, so they weren't american cars, but they were probably american car thieves...)