There’s a lot of talk lately about the security of the Android operating system as it was recently discovered to have a vulnerability that became known as Stagefright. It gets through the devices disguised as an MMS message and it allows attackers to access the personal files stored in the phone and control the camera and microphone. Since the MMS service is used less every day, it wouldn’t seem like such a threat, but as most phones are programmed to auto retrieve these type of messages, there is a large number of users that could be affected.
Ever since it was discovered, Google and OEMs have been working on patches to solve this issue and it was this week when the phones started to get the updates. Even some carriers are doing what they can to support their users, updating their most popular devices as soon as possible or even blocking those messages until they’re no longer a threat. Google and other companies like Samsung and LG have committed to updating their phones as much as once per month to make them more secure against future threats.
Now, Motorola has spoken about it and they’ve shown interest in the security of their customers, applauding Google’s efforts to enhance the security of Android devices and they are willing to work with them to make their products more secure too. Motorola announced three smartphones last week, the Moto G, Moto X Play and Moto X Style and the company has stated that all of them have the patch against Stagefright already and they are “working to integrate, test and deploy the patch” for many other devices. Also, the patch will be integrated on the newest release of the operating system, Android M.
So far, only Google has released the patch for their Nexus lineup and Samsung has released it for some of its most popular devices, and while it’s nice to see these companies working on solutions for this problem, there are still many more related to the Android OS that we haven’t heard of. Hopefully, the rest of the OEMs and carriers will release the patches soon enough.