Half a billion people still vulnerable to security flaws exposed in Wikileaks’ CIA revelations

EVEN if Apple, Samsung and Google work with Wikileaks to patch up security flaws, half a billion people still are exposed. This is what you must do now.

HALF a billion people are still vulnerable to hackers through the security flaws revealed in the Wikileaks dump of CIA documents, with those using Android phones most likely to be at risk.

In the wake of the revelations contained in the Wikileaks dump of about 9000 CIA documents, both Apple and Google have said most of the security flaws exploited by the US spy agency had already been fixed in recent software updates.

But those fixes mean nothing to the 500 million people still using outdated versions of the mobile operating systems on their smartphone.

Nathan Wenzler, chief security strategist at AsTech security company, said the Wikileaks release “should absolutely serve as a wake-up call to anyone who has been hesitating to update their phone or tablet before now”.

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The Central Intelligence Agency has been exposed. Picture: AP

Sanjay Kalra, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at cloud security company Lacework, said “outdated and unpatched software has been always an Achilles’ heel for security”.

“The older the software, the more the vulnerabilities and easier it is to penetrate such devices,” he said.

“The CIA leak should be an immediate wake-up call for the 450 million people who are still on the older versions of Android.

“The CIA might not be the one looking for them, but once these vulnerabilities are available in open, there are a lot of other bad actors ready to use them for profits or revenge.”

Hackers still have access to Apple iPhone and other devices without updated operating systems.

The Wikileaks documents cover a period from 2013 to 2016, and deals with faults previously unknown to Apple and Google in the Android 4.0 and iOS 8.2 operating systems.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has vowed to release the full details of the security flaws publicly after the tech giants have had the time to release security patches.

“We have decided to work with them to give them some exclusive access to the additional technical details we have so fixes can be developed and then pushed out,” he said in a webcast from the Ecuador embassy in London.

“Once this material is effectively disarmed by us we will publish additional details about what has been occurring.”

Apple users are more likely to be protected by recent Apple security patches because they are more likely to update their software. Apple released figures last month showing that 79 per cent of Apple iPhones and iPads were now running the latest iOS10 software and only 5 per cent, which equates to about 50 million people worldwide, were using iOS 8 or earlier.

Hackers can tap into the Apple iPad. Picture: Bloomberg

For owners of Android phones, the dismal rate of software upgrades are startling.

Google’s figures show only 2.8 per cent of Android users are running the latest version of the software.

A third of all Android smartphones still being used everyday by 450 million people are run on software that is at least three and a half years old or even older.

The difference in rates of software updates between Apple and Android users comes down to the difference between a closed and open system.

Google Android phones aren’t safe either after the Wikileaks CIA dump. Picture: AP

Apple’s current mobile operating system is compatible with iPhones back to the iPhone 5 released in 2012. When it releases an update, it is delivered directly to every iPhone and iPad user.

When Google releases an Android update, it then has to deliver that to phone makers to test the compatibility with the chips that run their phones before it is rolled out. Google guarantees system updates for two years — phones older than that are unlikely to be able to run the latest software with the security patches.