Recently there’s been much emphasis on maintaining our personal safety and security in modern tech-dependant times, with online password protection, ID theft prevention, phishing scams and vicious malware infection key points of discussion across the gadget-using community. Security co. Bit9 is latest to reveal some shocking stats that will make you think about what potentially nasty wares you could be carrying in our pockets by revealing “The Most Vulnerable Smartphones of 2011”.
It was recently uncovered by German research that Android operating software based gadgets in particular can be 99% unprotected from Wi-Fi hacking and malware, so it should come as no real surprise that some Google gadgets would be in the top most vulnerable to attack, but no less than 12 appear in the 13 smartphones recorded most at risk. Certainly unlucky for some. The only platform that bucks the trend is Apple’s iOS packing iPhone 4 and its successor models, which rank at a joint 13th in the list of offenders. Other manufacturers who feature in the list include popular makers HTC and Samsung. Several of the mobile models listed are currently US-only releases.
The list from bad to worse goes as follows:
13. Apple iPhone 4 (and earlier)
12. HTC EVO 4G
11. Motorola Droid 2
10. LG Optimus One
9. Motorola Droid X
8. Samsung Galaxy S
7. LG Optimus S
6. Samsung Epic 4G
5. HTC Wildfire
4. Sanyio Zio
3. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
2. HTC Desire
1. Samsung Galaxy Mini
Internet security software maker McAfee last week detailed the recent rise in Android vulnerability to hacking and malicious software, with a 37% increase in malware via apps downloaded from the Android Market in the last three months. The Android Market hosts 370,000 applications where software is most liberally submitted and downloaded, with 7-million recorded downloads between the launch of the service in October 2008 and the start of this month, November 2011.
Google’s one-stop app-shop is not famed for its strict submission guideline and criteria such as Apple claims for its own App Store. But making number 13 on the list also casts a shadow of doubt on the security provided by the world’s richest tech co.
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