It was revealed earlier this month that Android devices that are running anything lower than the Google KitKat update are vulnerable to a fundamental security flaw. Turns out that the advertising giant Google is not ready to improve security for Android users, leaving them to be eaten by the sharks. Now, the tech giant has revealed why it has prevented itself from releasing those extra security measures.
Google’s Android Security Chief, Adrian Ludwig has explained that it is no longer an effective method to start rolling out safety patches for the previous Android updates because it will require tremendous amounts of coding that will not only take an exorbitant amount of time to complete, but it will not help in securing Android devices running anything lower than the company’s KitKat version as well.
However, before Android users who are running obsolete versions of the operating system seclude themselves in a corner, Ludwig does have a few suggestions for Android smartphone users that he feels will work in their favor. First and foremost, users should only continue to use those web browsers that do not use WebView but still get updates, like Chrome and Firefox.
While using such browsers, hackers will not be able to manipulate the vulnerable software if users aren’t using it. In addition to this, users who are unable to understand the first part can always try discarding their existing stock Android ROM and switching to a 3rd party developer’s ROMs such as those made by Cyanogen (if they can learn the art of rooting and installing custom ROMs). Since custom ROMs will be based on the Google operating system updates, users will still be protected when they are using web browsers.
Still, it is always a good practice to remove cookies and clear the cache after users are done with their browser session.
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