Smartphones and tablets may receive infrequent updates and can be difficult to manage.

An article review.

Your desktop receives new virus definitions and other updates on what seems like an hourly basis, but when was the last time your smartphone received an OS update?

Duo Security released their 2017 Trusted Access Report recently, and it sheds light on a growing issue as more organizations adopt mobile device policies covering smartphones and tablets: many mobile devices are infrequently updated, if at all, with only 27 percent of polled Android devices running the latest version of the mobile operating system. iOS devices fared better, with 76 percent of devices running the latest version.

These out of date devices pose a real security risk, as the report highlights with the results of some 80,000 phishing attempts conducted by Duo Insight, showing 67% of recipients to have an out of date device. Such devices are more susceptible to exploits, which are frequently used in conjunction with a phishing campaign to capture credentials or other information.

One possible solution is the use of Mobile Device Management Application, which can enforce policies to require devices remain up to date. However, in many cases operating system updates have to travel from the OS manufacturer to handset manufacturers and finally the wireless carriers themselves before they can be pushed to users, and that doesn’t necessarily happen in a timely or regular fashion.

Original article by Duo Security.