“It’s easy to see that the Android ecosystem currently has a rather lax policy toward security, but a recent study from the University of Cambridge put some hard numbers to Android’s security failings,” Ron Amadeo reports for Ars Technica. “The conclusion finds that ‘on average 87.7% of Android devices are exposed to at least one of 11 known critical vulnerabilities.'”
“Along with the study, the University of Cambridge is launching AndroidVulnerabilities.org, a site that houses this data and grades OEMs based on their security record,” Amadeo reports. “The group came up with a 1-10 security rating for OEMs that it calls the ‘FUM’ score. This algorithm takes into account the number of days a proportion of running devices has no known vulnerabilities (Free), the proportion of devices that run the latest version of Android (Update), and the mean number of vulnerabilities not fixed on any device the company sells (Mean).”
“The study found that Google’s Nexus devices were the most secure out there, with a FUM score of 5.2 out of 10. Surprisingly, LG was next with 4.0, followed by Motorola, Samsung, Sony, and HTC, respectively,” Amadeo reports. “With 87% of devices flagged as insecure on any given day, the study really shows how far the Android ecosystem has to go to protect its users.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Open” – to infection. Android is the open sore of mobile.
When you buy garbage, expect to be treated like garbage.
Apple cares about their users because they are responsible for the hardware, the operating system, and the ecosystem; the whole enchilada. They are compelled to strive for high customer satisfaction in order to secure repeat buyers. There is no “Android” per se. Alphabet Inc. is the closest you can get to that and that gets you a whopping 5.2 security rating out of 10 – for an insecure knockoff of the real thing, no less! Not a smart purchasing decision. Like we always say, choosing an iPhone vs. an “Android” iPhone knockoff is like an IQ test.
If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone.
SEE ALSO:
Apple issues iPhone manifesto; blasts Android’s lack of updates, lack of privacy, rampant malware – August 10, 2015
New Android malware strains to top 2 million by end of 2015 – July 1, 2015
Symantec: 1 in 5 Android apps is malware – April 25, 2015
Kaspersky Lab Director: Over 98% of mobile malware targets Android because it’s much, much easier to exploit than iOS – January 15, 2015
Security experts: Malware spreading to millions on Android phones – November 21, 2014
There’s practically no iOS malware, thanks to Apple’s smart control over app distribution – June 13, 2014
F-Secure: Android accounted for 99% of new mobile malware in Q1 2014 – April 30, 2014
Google’s Sundar Pichai: Android not designed to be safe; if I wrote malware, I’d target Android, too – February 27, 2014
Cisco: Android the target of 99 percent of world’s mobile malware – January 17, 2014
U.S. DHS, FBI warn of malware threats to Android mobile devices – August 27, 2013
Android app malware rates skyrocket 40 percent in last quarter – August 7, 2013
First malware found in wild that exploits Android app signing flaw – July 25, 2013
Mobile Threats Report: Android accounts for 92% of all mobile malware – June 26, 2013
Latest self-replicating Android Trojan looks and acts just like Windows malware – June 7, 2013
99.9% of new mobile malware targets Android phones – May 30, 2013
Mobile malware exploding, but only for Android – May 14, 2013
Mobile malware: Android is a bad apple – April 15, 2013
F-Secure: Android accounted for 96% of all mobile malware in Q4 2012 – March 7, 2013
New malware attacks Android phones, Windows PCs to eavesdrop, steal data; iPhone, Mac users unaffected – February 4, 2013
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Aparajita” for the heads up.]