this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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Although not having security updates on your phone is a good enough reason for me to upgrade a phone. I recently used a ROG Phone II for four years before switching to a Fold5 to get a better software update policy. I simply didn't have the time anymore to fiddle with all my apps and fighting SafetyNet to use my banking apps because I used a custom ROM to keep my device updated.
It's kind of fucked that we just accept that as an argument though isn't it? Your desktop PC goes "out of support" when something physically requires hardware features or performance that isn't present on the chip. Up until windows 11, you could essentially put a fully up to date and secure windows 10 on a 15 year old computer if it was beefy enough.
Now we put up with "my manufacturer doesn't want to give me drivers for the device I bought but clearly don't actually own, so it's reasonable to pony up another $800 in 3 years to buy something new.
Android in the like 1.0 days installed and managed itself like a desktop is that could be installed on anything you could feed it drivers to. Why we as a society put up with anything less is beyond me.
The thing about security updates:
Sure, ditching your phone when it doesn't get any more updates is the safest thing, but I can't bring myself to do it for environmental reasons.
My phone runs Android 6, which currently has a 1% market share.
Who designs and deploys new malware that can only affect 1% of devices, most of which are probably secondary phones that only connect via Wifi behind a NAT by now? I'm not too worried about that.
sent from my Samsung Galaxy J5
There are many retroactive exploits in media renderers and web renderers that get fixed in newer security updates but are exploitable on every old version including Android 6. NAT doesn't save you against that.
Malware that can hit Android 6 can probably also hit Android 7, 8, and 9. Obviously how you use the device makes a difference, but the malware is still being made and you have to be careful.