Good evening everyone and welcome back to another post from ToBeSecured! I know its' been a while since I've posted to my blog, but more consistency is to come from here on out. I dropped a video on yesterday evening via my YouTube channel - Kassirer Dunn, as well as my Instagram page (IGTV) - ToBeSecured. Yes, your eyes are correct. I decided to finally start uploading my content to YouTube and I'm looking to expand my business to more followers, subscribers, and people who're interested in learning how to be secured in the tech world! On yesterday, I discussed some news in relation to Apple's iOS updates and some hacking news.
Today, I'm going to flip the view towards my Android users out there. As I mentioned in the video yesterday, if you're considering switching over to the other side, you may want to REconsider. Emphasis on the RE because it's not looking to good for all my Android users out here if you were getting ready to talk down on my Apple users.
Let's get right to the point. If you own an Android, I'd seriously consider throwing it out and finding an iPhone for the low-low given the current circumstances we're in. The reason behind this consideration is simply a high risk of being HACKED! More than a billion Android devices are at high risk of being hacked simply because they aren't protected by security updates/patches anymore.
How do I know? Researchers at Which? magazine found 40% of Android users WORLDWIDE are no longer receiving security updates from the GOOGLE operating system and this put folks at a greater risk of being exploited: data theft, ransom demands, malware attacks, and other cyber related issues.
“Researchers tested a range of phones including models from Motorola, Samsung, Sony and LG/Google and found vulnerability to hacks including enabling personal information to be stolen, a hacker to take complete control over the phone or large bills for services that the phone owner hasn’t used themselves,” Which? wrote in a press release March 6.
What to do if your phone is at risk?
If your Android device is more than two years old, check whether it can be updated to a newer version of the operating system. If you are on an earlier version than Android 7.0 Nougat, try to update via Settings> System>Advanced System update
If you can't update, your phone could be at risk of being hacked, especially if you are running a version of Android 4 or lower. If this is the case be careful about downloading apps outside the Google Play storeAlso be wary of suspicious SMS or MMS messages
Back up data in at least two places (a hard drive and a cloud service)
Install a mobile anti-virus via an app, but bear in mind that the choice is limited for older phones
What are your thoughts on this topic? Subscribe to my blog if you haven't already and follow my Instagram - ToBeSecured for CyberTuesday vlogs. I have launched my YouTube channel and you can find me by simply typing Kassirer Dunn into the search engine. Thank you for tuning in and remember ToBeSecured!
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