Extending its wings beyond the Internet, the ‘Heartbleed’ bug, discovered last week, has reportedly hit consumer devices, infecting millions of smartphones and tablets powered by Google’s Android operating system.
Despite the company stating in a blog post last week that all versions of Android were immune to the bug, Google admitted that there is a ‘limited exception’ to an older edition of the OS, version 4.1.1, which was rolled out in 2012.
Security researchers claim that the Android 4.1.1 version powers millions of smartphones and tablets, including devices manufactured by Samsung, HTC and other companies.
Recent Google statistics found that 34% of Android devices are running some form of the 4.1 OS, but says that less than 10% of active devices are vulnerable to the bug.
Discovered by researchers from Google and Finnish firm Codenomicon, the Heartbleed bug affects open-source encryption OpenSSL by enabling hackers to steal computer data normally protected by SSL/TLS encryption.
However, a patch was launched o 07 April and effected users were advised to upgrade to OpenSSL 1.0.1g.
