Google leaves many Android users exposed to hacking – CNET in Spanish

A Google executive confirms that there are no plans to fix a security problem in the default browser of the older Android versions.

People who use phones and tablets that run Android Jelly Bean 4.3 or earlier will be exposed to a security breach in the default browser. CNET

People who have phones and tablets running older versions of Android OS – representing 60 percent of all Android users -. have to live with a security breach that Google has decided not correct

A known security problem in the Web browser – no name, which runs by default – installed on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and previous versions of Google’s mobile operating system will run out of repair, and wrote the head Android security on Google+ input Friday.

“Keep updated software is one of the biggest security challenges,” wrote Adrian Ludwig. Because the app browser is based on a version of WebKit engine, which has more than two years, correct the vulnerability in Android Jelly Bean and earlier “is no longer practical to do so safely,” he wrote.

On Saturday, Google confirmed that the entry of Ludwig represent the official position of the company.

The company’s decision has angered security experts, who worry that the hackers can easily attack hundreds of millions of people using phones and tablets with older versions of Android. Ludwig says the number of people who potentially may be affected by the vulnerability is “shrinking every day.” But for security professionals, it is not falling fast enough.

According to the numbers themselves using Google Android, 39.1 percent of phones and tablets running a newer version that is not affected: Android 4.4 KitKat. The latest version of the operating system, launched in November, covers less than one tenth of 1 percent of Android devices in use. That means that about 60 percent of Android devices running OS versions including default to susceptible browser.

The consequence of having so many people using many different versions of the same operating system is that it becomes much more complicated protect wrote Tod Beardsley, a manager of engineering at security firm Rapid7. “Unfortunately, these are excellent news for criminals for the simple reason that for the thugs really, almost everything is within reach,” he wrote in a blog entry.

Moving to a phone or New Android Tablet is not an option for many people, Beardsley said, because the latest Nexus phone with the latest Android version costs US $ 649.99, while Amazon can get new Android phones with older versions of the operating system a tenth of that.

Ludwig recommends people using Android 4.3 or above to use a different Web browser. He recommends Google Chrome, which runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and later, or Mozilla Firefox, which runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and later.

However, changing browser will not solve the problem completely because it affects Part of the default browser used to display the websites . Ludwig has asked developers to restrict apps load content into their apps that do not come directly from the Android device, or through a secure connection.

Beadsley said he understands the decision by Google how difficult it is to update old computer code. But he also said he expects the company to reconsider its decision due to the large number of people who rely on Android to “manage and store the personal details in their lives.”

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