Android Phones: 87 Percent Are Vulnerable To Security Risks, Study Shows

The research by the University of Cambridge and funded partly by the Internet search giant, has found that although Google develops regular patch for its Android security loopholes, consumers, regulators, and corporate buyers don’t know which vendor will supply those patches. Android appeared to be the most secure during the early parts of 2013, with consecutive discoveries pushing most devices into the “insecure” category in the years that followed. There is little that Android users can now do to protect themselves as fixes for bugs in the core of Android have to be issued in operating system updates.

Major Android phone manufacturers were contacted for comment on their security update policies, though none responded in time for publication. Over the summer, security firm Zimperium found a flaw known as the Stagefright bug in the media playback tool in Android devices through which hackers could send users a text message containing malware.

‘The difficulty is that the market for Android security today is like the market for lemons, ‘ the study says.

Thanks to the data, researchers were able to score manufacturers based on critical vulnerabilities, security updates and devices still waiting for security patches.

Data for this graph comes from over 21,700 devices and was collected using Device Analyzer, an app created by researchers at the Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge which has been available for free on the Play Store since May 2011.

A few smartphone manufacturers are making headway in implementing security measures.

Most Android phones don’t pass muster on the security front. It’s even worse with carrier-branded phones, as the carrier must also test and approve the updates before they come to you.

For now, you could trust the research and consider LG, Motorola and Google Nexus devices the next time you’re shopping. The manufacturer has to customize it to work with their own software and then send it for approval with the networks who offer the phone.

The score is out of ten with Nexus doing better than average with a score of 5.7.

Of the rest, LG phones received the highest scores for security, although that figure may be slanted as LG also has been a primary manufacturer of Nexus phones. The FUM score included the proportion of devices free from known vulnerabilities, the proportion of devices running the most recent version, and the number of vulnerabilities the manufacturer hasn’t addressed, according to the researchers. Even when devices do receive updates, it is typically for the high-performance flagship units first rather than the high-frequency budget devices that more people own.