A security threat threatens about a billion different Android devices. According to a study, these devices are no longer supported by security updates, which expose their owners to steal their data and personal information easily.
Security and informatics experts confirmed that phones running Android 7 and earlier are at risk, especially those operating Android 4 and later, according to the German "Duchi Villa" website.
The number of those devices - between mobile phones and tablets - is estimated at about one billion devices (i.e. about 40% of Android users), and it is at imminent risk by information hackers because it is no longer supported by recent security updates but devices running the latest version Android 10 and the last two versions. Android 9 and 8 are theoretically protected due to the fact that the devices that these systems are running on have security updates.
"What is very worrying is that the expensive Android devices have a short shelf life before they lose their security support, leaving millions of users at risk of serious consequences if they fall victim to hackers," says Kate Bevan, a cyber security journalist.
Google and Apple - the makers of the world's most popular mobile operating systems - Android and iOS, are known to release new versions of their software annually, followed by periodic updates, several years smaller, to fix any other issues that may arise later.