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The world is making a pretty big deal about Android security after a recent vulnerability called Stagefright was publicized. This is an exploit affecting Android devices, making them susceptible to attacks via MMS or web browser. Pretty scary stuff, but one Google quickly addressed and then some. Not only will Google quickly issue a patch for their entire line of Nexus devices, they’re now committed to monthly security updates to ensure things like this don’t go unaddressed for too long. Ever.
While that’s all good and dandy for Nexus users, the vast majority of Android users have non-Nexus devices made by other manufacturers who will need to address security updates on their own time and face the extra hurdle of further needing approval from carriers before getting pushed out to devices. To help expedite this process, Samsung too — who ships more Android devices than anyone else in the world — is chiming in on the issue.
According to Samsung, they’re kicking off “a new Android security update process” that essentially fast tracks software updates over-the-air to devices in an effort to patch vulnerabilities as they are discovered. Samsung says you can look forward to these updates “about” once a month, giving some of their customers a little peace of mind when it comes to security.
Samsung’s Executive Vice President and Head of Mobile Research and Development Office, IT & Mobile Communications (that’s a mouthful) Dong Jin Koh had this to say:
“With the recent security issues, we have been rethinking the approach to getting security updates to our devices in a more timely manner. Since software is constantly exploited in new ways, developing a fast response process to deliver security patches to our devices is critical to keep them protected. We believe that this new process will vastly improve the security of our devices and will aim to provide the best mobile experience possible for our users.”
As we mentioned before, Samsung will still need to gain approval from carriers before pushing out updates like this over-the-air, but they did mention that they are already engaged in talks with a few to make this as quick of a process as possible. We still don’t know which Samsung devices will see these new fast tracked security updates, but Samsung promises to have more info available soon.
[Samsung]
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