I was on my way to a new phone. Should I delete an android off my list?
97% of mobile malware is on Android. 0% is on un-jailbroken iPhones or modern Windows Phones.
The Hacker Team just offered to sell their complete set of tools for breaking into mobile devices to another company. These are the tools they sell to government agencies at all levels including NSA, CIA, FBI, and other police agencies in every country. The claim they have tools for ALL mobile devices except the Apple iOS iPhones and iPads. They said last week they have not been successful in breaking into iOS devices.
Even if they could hack into the Apple devices, the data in iPhones and iPads is encrypted to 256 bit AES standards using a key that is made up of the user's passcode and the devices 128 bit UUID. Apple itself does not have this key. Both the passcode hash and the key hash are kept in a special FileVault™ location inside the processor inside the iOS devices, unaccessible from outside the iOS device.
Windows phones have very few choices of Apps compared to either Android or iPhones. RIM/Blackberry are dying on the vine. Nokia Symbian is basically dead.
There was also this Android vulnerability from three days ago:
Android Stagefright Flaws Put 950 Million Devices at Risk
The biggest problem with the Android OS philosophy is that Google made an early decision to depend on the carriers and device makers for providing system and security updates. . . and that can take months if they bother to provide them at all. It is not in their interest to do so, so then make little effort to push out upgrades or patches. The makers and carriers want their users to buy NEW Android phones with the newest version that has the patch on it rather than push out a patch or new upgraded Android version to older phones or devices.
Android = Google. Take that for what it’s worth.