According to StatCounter, more than 30% of Android users worldwide are using Android 13 or older versions on their phones.
This version of Google's mobile operating system was first released in 2022. This means that, according to statistics, about one billion Android users using phones have lost Google support and cannot update patches.
According to cybersecurity company Zimperium: "At any time of the year, more than 50% of mobile devices are running outdated operating system versions, and a significant number have been compromised or infected with viruses.
This is a big problem for old Android phone users who no longer receive monthly security updates. For example, the December Android security update just released has patched 107 vulnerabilities. This shows that for smartphones that no longer support patch updates, the risk of data leakage will increase.
Compared to Android devices, the number of Apple iPhone users using models that are no longer supported by Apple is much lower. StatCounter estimates that about 90% of operating iPhones worldwide still receive software support from Apple.
Conversely, that means 10% of operating iPhones worldwide have lost support.
Unlike Android phone manufacturers, Apple only needs to press a button to update all iPhones at the same time. With Android, the update must work with different application processors, and different phone manufacturers with different user interfaces need to be considered.
The importance of owning an Android phone that receives security patches becomes clear when attackers target personal data and application login information of Android users.
According to cybersecurity experts from BeyondTrust, cyberattackers will know which types of smartphones are prone to data leaks and they will target them.
Therefore, if users' phones have stopped supporting software, they need to consider the option of upgrading to a new machine. That could be a good investment to avoid unnecessary data leakage risks, especially in the context that network security is a prominent issue today.
