Published in Mobiles

Monthly updates for Android

by on07 August 2015


Google and Samsung agree

Google and Samsung have decided to release monthly security fixes for Android phones in a bid to cut the number of hack attacks.

The move follows the Stagefright fiasco which left most of Android phones about as secure as an iPhone. However because of the way that Android was distributed there was no way to fix it quickly.

Android security chief Adrian Ludwig said at this week's annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas that the outfit realized it needed to move faster to fix problems like this.

Previously, Google would develop a patch and distribute it to its own Nexus phones after the discovery of security flaws.

Other manufacturers would wait until they wanted to update the software for different reasons before pushing out a fix.

Ludwig said improvements to recent versions of Android would limit an attack's effectiveness in more than nine out of 10 phones, but Drake said an attacker could keep trying until the gambit worked.

Drake said he would release code for the attack by August 24, putting pressure on manufacturers to get their patches out before then.

Nexus phones are being updated with protection this week and the vast majority of major Android handset makers are following suit, Ludwig said.

Samsung Vice President Rick Segal acknowledged that his company could not force the telecommunications carriers that buy its devices in bulk to install the fixes and that some might do so only for higher-end users.

Ludwig said many Android security scares were overblown. He added that only about one in 200 Android phones have any potentially harmful applications installed at any point.

The biggest security risk comes with apps that are not downloaded from the official online stores of the two companies.

Last modified on 08 August 2015
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