No Security-Updates = New Smartphone??

[Harkulles]

Hi,

my Smartphone (Nokia 8 Dual sim, Android-Version 9) doesn't receive security-updates anymore because it is "to old". It works perfectly fine. Should i be concerned and get a new Phone? (i use the phone for mobile banking)

[Chris Pratt]

You can see if you can flash it with an alternate OS, like LineageOS. XDA Developers would be your best resource for that. Otherwise, no, I wouldn't continue to use it without security updates.

[Pixelfie]

If you know what you're doing you could try flashing a custom ROM. For the Nokia 8 you can find some here. You can download TWRP (recovery required to flash custom ROM) here. Do this at your own risk.

 

If you don't want to flash a custom ROM it depends on how long it hasn't received updates. It seems like the Nokia 8 has stopped receiving updates for some time now, so I'd recommend a new phone or custom ROM.

[Commodus]

1 hour ago, Harkulles said:

Hi,

my Smartphone (Nokia 8 Dual sim, Android-Version 9) doesn't receive security-updates anymore because it is "to old". It works perfectly fine. Should i be concerned and get a new Phone? (i use the phone for mobile banking)

I would consider it if you value security. Android 9 is three years old at this point, so the number of potential exploits has piled up even if you've been receiving security-only updates for a while. No, you're not likely to get hacked, but you don't want to find out that you fell prey to a flaw that was fixed a year or two ago.

 

The tricky bit is getting a new phone with a good security update policy. The best is the iPhone, where you get five to six years of major OS updates and sometimes longer for security. However, I know not everyone wants or can justify an iPhone. In Android, Google and Samsung have the best security update policies running up to four or five years for new devices; otherwise, you're usually looking at around two to three years.

[Imbadatnames]

On 1/23/2022 at 3:30 PM, Commodus said:

I would consider it if you value security. Android 9 is three years old at this point, so the number of potential exploits has piled up even if you've been receiving security-only updates for a while. No, you're not likely to get hacked, but you don't want to find out that you fell prey to a flaw that was fixed a year or two ago.

 

The tricky bit is getting a new phone with a good security update policy. The best is the iPhone, where you get five to six years of major OS updates and sometimes longer for security. However, I know not everyone wants or can justify an iPhone. In Android, Google and Samsung have the best security update policies running up to four or five years for new devices; otherwise, you're usually looking at around two to three years.

Also another issue is banking apps, they will just up and dump multiple versions at once. Think Lloyds went from requiring android 5 to 7 randomly without warning. Think it still requires 7 though. That being said if a major exploit is uncovered on 9 now and isn’t patched they will straight up not sign any updates and likely will lock you out of the app.