The Stagefright vulnerability put the issue of security on Android devices front and centre but it would appear the problems are more dire than just one security hole. According to a new study on Android security conducted at the University of Cambridge (which was apparently funded by Google), it was found that on average 87.7% devices are susceptible to at least one of eleven known “critical vulnerabilities”; the study surveyed 20,400 devices.
Naturally, how secure a device is depends on the manufacturer and how regularly they update their devices – as a whole ecosystem, Android devices only receive 1.26 updates every year. The team behind the survey came up with a scoring system to rate all the Android manufacturers against each other – the systems is called a “FUM” score and uses multiple inputs such as how many devices are vulnerability free, how many devices are on the latest version of Android, and how many vulnerabilities haven’t been fixed.
According to the “FUM” findings in the study, Google predictably top-scored with 5.2, LG was second with 4.0 and Motorola was third with 3.1; Samsung, Sony, HTC and ASUS bring up the rear. Note, however, that the “FUM” score is out of 10, which really puts into perspective the state of security on Android when Google, the fastest out of everyone to update its devices, scores only 5.2 out of 10 on a measure of security.
What do you think about the findings of this study on Android security? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: University of Cambridge via ZDNet
