Talk about a call to action.
A couple of weeks ago, researchers warned of a couple of scary and serious Android security issues. Troy Wolverton wrote that one of the bugs, which Trend Micro said could brick phones, affects about half of all Android gadgets. The other, Stagefright, could allow the hacking of a phone via a multimedia text message. Stagefright is said to affect about 950 million devices.
Quicker than you can say switch to iPhone, Google, Samsung and now LG are saying they will roll out security updates monthly, and some reports say other Android phone makers are expected to follow suit.
Updating practices on updates addresses one of the biggest knocks on Android devices — that they re insecure partly because they re made by so many different companies, which don t offer updates quickly or regularly enough for wireless carriers to then pass along to customers. Fans of Apple s iPhone say the company s control over both the hardware and software make the device a safer choice because fixes can be deployed more quickly. (Save the hate email; I own both iOS and Android devices.)
OpenSignal, which releases an annual Android Fragmentation Report, said this week that there are nearly 1,300 manufacturers of Android devices — and at least 24,000 distinct devices.
Google started rolling out security updates to its Nexus devices Wednesday, and said that it will release such updates monthly. Wednesday s updates include a fix for the Stagefright flaw.
Earlier this week, Samsung — the top maker of Android devices — said it had fast tracked fixes to Galaxy devices affected by Stagefright, and that will be releasing monthly security updates. The company said it s talking to carriers around the world to implement the new approach. A Samsung exec told The Verge that the move to regular updates has been in the works for months, and that he didn t expect to see any pushback from carriers or partners or anything because everybody knows it s the right thing to do.
And LG told Wired today that it is also going to be issuing monthly security updates.
Photo of a Samsung Galaxy smartphone from Associated Press archives
