Buying a used smartphone could put you at risk — here's why
Buying a used smartphone could put yous at risk — here'due south why
Many people sell and buy 2nd-paw mobile phones as a way to make and save money, but what they may not realize is that this practise creates a major security take a chance.
An estimated three in 10 pre-owned smartphones sold in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland could be vulnerable to hackers, a new report by U.K. consumer-watchdog group Which? finds, because the phones are also old to receive crucial security updates from manufacturers.
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"Consumers who want to brand a sustainable choice or who don't desire to pay the steep price of many mod premium mobile phones may desire to cull a pre-endemic, refurbished version instead," said Which? in a media release.
"Keeping devices in circulation in this way helps the environment, but with some phones losing important update support subsequently a piffling over two years, this leaves time to come owners potentially using unsecure devices."
Selling unsecure phones
In its investigation, Which? looked at pre-endemic mobile phones that were being sold online via second-hand retailers in the U.K. such as CeX, Music Magpie and SmartFoneStore.
Of the three companies, CeX was found to take the greatest percentage of secondhand smartphones, with 31% of handsets in its online inventory ineligible for security updates from technology companies. (Unlike the other 2 outlets, CeX has brick-and-mortar stores as well as a website.)
Music Magpie came second, with 20% of its secondhand phones not supported past security updates. Only 17% for SmartFoneStore's inventory was out of appointment.
Which? warned that all 3 firms "were reselling mobile phones that, unknown to customers, are vulnerable to hackers because manufacturers tin can stop providing vital security updates afterwards a couple of years."
The study noted that the Apple tree iPhone v, Google Pixel XL, Huawei P10, Samsung A8 Plus and the Samsung Milky way S7 were amidst the secondhand devices being sold, fifty-fifty though all were past the appointment that they would receive any further security updates.
Clamping down
Since its investigation, said Which?, ii of the used-telephone retailers in question take taken steps to clamp down on the sale of insecure secondhand mobile devices.
"In response to the Which? investigation, Music Magpie has removed the unsupported devices Which? found from sale," said the Which? press release. "Information technology also says that going forwards, it will provide information to consumers if a product is no longer receiving security updates."
"SmartFoneStore also issued an update, calculation a warning on unsupported devices so consumers are aware before they buy them," said Which?
Nevertheless, information technology added, "CeX did non provide a annotate."
Jake Moore, a security specialist at ESET, told Tom'south Guide: "These devices will often work well or even perfectly on the surface, but with the right knowledge, hackers can cleverly make utilize of software vulnerabilities that take never been patched to target their victims with all sorts of attacks such as keylogging to steal passwords.
"Buyers must be reminded to bank check which operating systems are currently supported on each device before purchasing whatever phone equally nigh models volition only usually take a few years' shelf life before an upgrade is due to hardware security patches."
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Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/secondhand-smartphone-risks
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