Is it still safe to use as long as apps continue to be updated and is supported by the play store?
How long would you say someone could safely use an Android phone that no longer gets security updates for?
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Every phone has potential unknown vulnerability. The problem is if there are no security updates, they become a security issue when discovered as they won’t be fixed.
Vulnerabilities in current gen phone getting updates exist too. They only get patched when the manufacturer or Google know about them.
The flip side is it’s probably had all the most obvious flaws patched already. Newer phones may not, yet. So be cautious is always a good idea.
I believe this is highly dependent on 2 things:
- The user’s internet habits and knowledge
- Who is targeting you
For someone like me a tech savvy person who practices good internet habits and is targeted at worst by crypto scammers and advertisers, I would say secure enough and looking at my circle of relatives and colleagues I would say it is still secure enough for the non techie people as I never heard of any of them getting hacked
My phone stopped receiving security updates from the vendor I believe in 2021 (running a custom ROM rn)
Very, very safe. Android security levels are very high. Much higher than iPhone for example, because Google have a dedicated Security team testing it all the time. They even host Hackathons where people are invited to find holes and vulnerabilities.
In any case Google can send important security updates via the Play Store as well. But most vulnerabilities found are never actually used in reality. They normally require physical access to the device, some kind of computer, complicated techniques. In other words nothing the regular person ever has to worry about.
If you hear of anyone having a malware issue it’s because they went to a dodgy site and downloaded an APK and installed it manually.
If you use your brain and only install apps from trusted sources, you’ll be fine.
(Trusted sources: Google Play Store, F-Droid, uptodown.com)
To expand on this, most vulnerabilities that require the vendor to actually participate by providing security updates are specific to your hardware configuration. These kinds of vulnerabilities are less attractive to most attackers because of their specificity. Attackers would much prefer to have a vulnerability that applies to many different victims, not just a specific kind. Android has gone to great lengths to update these commonly targeted components regardless of your vendor support status. Unless you believe you would be specifically targeted, the risk is fairly low.
I’m not sure it’s fair to put iPhone down. They do take security very seriously, especially physical security with their formally verified bootloader. Not seeking a flame war. I just didn’t think it was accurate. Are we so sure they don’t have individuals focused on iPhone security at Apple? Compromised devices impact their brand image while the same bugs can be used for jailbreaking. I’m sure it’s very important. I interviewed with a team up there that I believe specialized in just that. Just recently Apple implemented an emergency security patching system for their devices to get security updates out even faster.
Full disclaimer: I use both devices for software development. I have no special preference.
They certainly do take iPhone security seriously but Google has really done alot more in this area. I’ve seen metrics where Android has significantly less vulnerabilities than iOS. Plus I’ve read multiple articles where Mobile Security vendors have said they get far more exploits submitted for iOS than for Android.
Hence the pay much more for Android exploits they work then for iOS exploits because they are more common.
Note that these are companies which specialise in hacking phones for government agency use, so it’s not something that will affect everyone. But in general iOS has more holes.
A while back Google’s Security team found an iOS hole, told Apple, who never fixed it, until Google eventually made it public and only then did Apple agree to fix it. So they don’t seem to be in a hurry over at Apple to fix holes.
How is uptodown a trusted source?
Vivaldi browser makes their app available there so I’m assuming they’ve vetted it
I’m really stubborn about updating my devices and it’ll perhaps bite me in the ass one day but so far it haven’t. My phone has been trying to force the Android 13 update on me for 6 months now and my laptop I’m not going to update any further from MacOS Catalina even though there have been several updates after that.
Why? I don’t fix stuff that’s not broken.
But it is broken, old software is usually riddled with security vulnerabilities
Yeah. That’s why I said it’ll might bite me in the ass one day.
Other than that it all works just fine so I don’t want for fuck with it. My experience with software updates is that they always break something and slow down my devices.
Not updating desktop OS seems pretty crazy to me. Is the reason because it might break some applications you use?
It will break some applications and I don’t like the UI on the new MacOS.
I’ve always used old devices that you often even can’t get updates for so this has always been the norm for me. I know it’s not the smartest thing to do but my great luck has brought me this far so lets see how long it’ll last.
Sounds like Linux might be way. Last OS that a lot of my devices ended up getting have been Linux with how well they run once the majors OS start upping the system requirements.
My next laptop is probably going to be the Framework one so Linux definitely is an option. I’m interested in it but seems a bit tricky to deal with so we’ll see.
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But like, didn’t you reply to it?
That interaction was more like:
“Hey, Bob, where’s the bathroom?”
“As your toaster, I can answer the question you asked Bob. The bathroom is-”
“WHO THE FUCK ASKED YOU?!”
Uh, well… uhhhhhh… oh I’ve got it: I didn’t write the text of the meme so I didn’t speak to it, I memed at it. Q.E.D.
Plot twist: jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml is a robot.
Phew. Good thing I’m not actually a machine!
That’s what all machines say
I like real Australians better. Bad “bot”, bad!