In the aftermath of the Android Stagefright debacle, Google began releasing monthly security updates. They also introduced the Android security patch level API to make checking if an Android device is up-to-date as simple as knowing today’s date.
Despite these efforts, serious concerns about the security of Android devices remain. In a post published on the Duo Blog earlier today, R&D Intern Olabode Anise shared some insight the Labs team gleaned from a recent data analysis:
- 68% of Android devices are able to receive the monthly security patch.
- As of April 30, only 25% of those devices were running the latest security patch.
- 3 out of 10 Android devices hadn’t applied a security patch that has been released since the start of 2016, thus leaving them susceptible to exploits for 24 critical vulnerabilities.
Read more about Labs’ findings in Anise’s blog post here.
