I found out that my mom is using an older phone that serves her just fine, but last recieved updates in 2021.

Realistically, how dangerous is this? What are the scenarios that could potentially happen with a phone that out of date?

She may be open to something like lineage OS, but I don’t want to make her phone less familiar for her, which would be harder to use. She is not very techy but also not fearful of a little tinkering. I don’t live near her so she will not have anyone knowledgeable to troubleshoot if the need arises.

I’m not a infosec person at ALL so I genuinely don’t know what she is exposed to.

Let me know if I should post this in another community instead.

  • Cheradenine@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    13·
    2 days ago

    If it is not getting updates then it isn’t getting vendor security patches, it will still get Google Play Services and Android System Webview patches assuming those are enabled.

    I wouldn’t use any kind of banking or payment apps, so anything linked to an account from which money can be directly debited. That can be a lot of things from EBay to highway toll collection to paying for coffee.

    I’m not trying to fear monger but it’s time mom got a new phone. Use this one for streaming in the kitchen, or give it to a niece. Locked down of course.

    Edit: that’s if it’s Android, if it’s iOS it will not get any patches once it’s end of life.