Millions of Android smartphone users are susceptible to security vulnerabilities such as viruses and malware, according to an internal bulletin prepared by the
Department of Homeland Security and the
FBI.

The July 23 bulletin, obtained by the website
Public Intelligence, reveals that Android — as
the most widely used mobile OS — continues
to be the target of attacks due to "its market
share and open source architecture."

"44 percent of Android users are still using
version 2.3.3 through 2.3.7 — known as
Gingerbread — which were released in 2011
and have a number of security vulnerabilities
that were fixed in later versions," the bulletin
reads.

Android leads the smartphone market, with
roughly 80% global market share. While more
popular in the consumer, rather than the
public sector, the bulletin warns that software
needs to be kept up-to-date as more federal,
state, and local authorities use Android.

The bulletin describes some of the threats if
the OS isn't updated to the latest, and more
secure software. These include viruses that
send out text messages without the user's
knowledge, and "rootkits," which are able to
log user locations and passwords.

The current 4.3 version of Android, known as
Jelly Bean, is considered much safer — with a
built-in feature that allows users to scan
installed apps for signs of malicious or dirty
code, according to Phandroid.

nice one

This guys are just tryin to hype up Android 4.3.. Every Internet-Connected technology in existence is vulnerable to attack