There have recently been a growing number of vulnerabilities associated with mobile operating systems that threaten the security and integrity of a user’s device, including “Stagefright” in the Android operating system, which may affect almost 1 billion Android devices globally … Consumers may be left unprotected, for long periods of time or even indefinitely, by any delays in patching vulnerabilities once they are discovered. To date, operating system providers, original equipment manufacturers, and mobile service providers have responded to address vulnerabilities as they arise. There are, however, significant delays in delivering patches to actual devices—and that older devices may never be patched.

Good

Government is usually best kept away from interfering in the free market, but when it comes to mobile phone security updates it’s a welcomed move because, at least when it comes to Android updates, the system has long been broken.

As it stands, when Google issues a patch for Android it’s up to device manufacturers and/or carriers as to when, or even if device users will ever receive it.

Some phones are updated directly from the manufacturer, while phones that have been customized by carriers (usually with crapware) then have to wait for the carrier to make the update available with every step of the process adding precious months to when phones owners actually receive the update, and that’s presuming they do at all.

What the FTC and FCC is undertaking here is nothing more than a basic investigation into the problem as it stands, and it’s unlikely there will be any legal ruling at the end of the process versus perhaps a recommendation to the industry as to how it could be doing things better. At the same time it may be a long overdue wake-up call to all the players in process that they need to do far better when it comes to getting security patches and upgrades out to users.

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