‘Stagefright’ hack could have affected 1 billion Android phones

ONE billion Android phones could be affected by a ‘dangerous’ bug that allows hackers access the device.
Researchers at the Zimperium security company have termed the attack ‘Stagefright,’ and say it does not even need to be opened to bypass Android security and gain access to the phone’s storage, files and cameras.
According to the researchers, phones using Android versions 2.2 (Froyo) and higher are at risk, but particularly vulnerable are those versions from 2.2 to the 2012 Jelly Bean (4.1).
Google has released a patch for the bug, but said millions of phones still needed to be updated. Phone manufacturers have to distribute the patch, and customers have to agree manually to the update.
A Google statement said: “This vulnerability was identified in a laboratory setting on older Android devices, and as far as we know, no one has been affected. As soon as we were made aware of the vulnerability we took immediate action and sent a fix to our partners to protect users.”