A while ago, during the height of the Stagefright scare, major manufacturers made promises to provide monthly security patches. Samsung was amongst the ones who promised, and now, the OEM has launched a security focused blog intending to keep users up to date on the security updates that the company pushes out.
Starting off, the website can be found at security.samsungmobile.com. The website lists its purposes as keeping users informed on developing security issues, providing information on recent security updates and serve as a main resource hub for Samsung security notifications. The monthly updates that the company intends to push will contain patches for Android-wide security issues that are released by Google, as well as patches for Samsung-specific security issues.
Sounds too good to be true? Well, there is a catch. The monthly updates are restricted to only the top, flagship level devices of 2014 and 2015. The list includes the Galaxy S series, but specifies only the Galaxy S5, S6, S6 Edge and S6 Edge+; the Galaxy Note series, again with only the Note 4, Note Edge and Note 5 specified; and the Galaxy Tab series, with the Tab S and the Tab S2 specified. Given the sheer number of devices that Samsung launches in a year, along with the elephant in the room that is Touchwiz, it comes as no surprise that the list is missing a lot of devices, many of which were launched in this year. This essentially means that you are restricted to top tier flagships if you wish to receive regular and frequent security-focused patches.
The blog post does note that the models list may vary depending on regions and carriers, which in effect, does further limit the number of devices that will actually receive the security patches. Wherever there are carriers involved, there are bound to be roadblocks and as such, delays would be inevitable. Samsung previously did speak of improving on this aspect, stating that it was “conversation with carriers around the world to implement the new approach”, but as of now, there has been no progress which the public can see.
Samsung also has outlined a procedure for reporting vulnerabilities found in Samsung devices. You can find more information about it here.
Nonetheless, with all things said and done, a step taken is better than none, more so in the case of matters of grave concerns. We hope that Samsung does work indeed on providing the promised updates, as well as covering more devices in the future.
Is your device in the mentioned list of supported devices? Would like the focus of updates be spread on to more devices, including the mid and lower tiers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Read on for more related content:
- Stagefright Explained: The Exploit That Changed Android
- A Demonstration of Stagefright-like Mistakes
- Opinion: Android Is Its Own Worst Enemy for Updates
- Samsung Partners with Sectra to Produce Secure Government Devices
Cover Image Credits: The Guardian
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