Older smartphones risk exposure as security support deadlines approach, warns Which?

Consumer group Which? issues urgent advice for users to verify if their devices still receive critical security updates, highlighting vulnerabilities in outdated smartphones from Apple, Samsung, and others.

Smartphone owners would be wise to check whether their device is still receiving security patches, as consumer group Which? warns that older handsets can quickly become exposed to cyber threats once manufacturers stop supporting them. The organisation has published a free checker that estimates when support is due to end, or whether it has already done so, for a wide range of models from Apple, Samsung, Nokia and others.

Which? says the risk is often underestimated, even though a significant number of people change phones only because updates have stopped. Its advice is simple: find your handset model, check the expected end date for security support and treat any device that has fallen out of support with caution, especially if it is used for banking, shopping or work email.

The group also notes that manufacturers do not always make the final security update obvious to users. On iPhones, the relevant information can be found in Settings under General and then Software Update. On Android phones, including devices from Samsung, Google, Motorola, Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus, Sony, Realme and Nokia, users are usually told to search settings for “Security update” to see the date of the latest patch.

Support windows vary sharply between models. Which?’s tracker suggests, for example, that an iPhone 12 or 12 Pro may stop receiving security updates in October 2026, while the newest iPhones are expected to be supported for years longer. Elsewhere in the market, recent reporting has shown how quickly support can end: Samsung’s Galaxy S10 family has now been removed from monthly, quarterly and biannual security update lists, leaving those phones without official patches.

Even when mainstream iPhone software support ends, Apple has in some cases continued to issue limited fixes for older devices to keep core services functioning. MacRumors reported in January that Apple pushed an updated iOS 12 build for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6, extending certain functions many years after launch. But security experts still caution that unsupported phones become progressively less suitable for sensitive tasks as new flaws emerge and remain unpatched.

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Source: Fuse Wire Services