Android had the most number of vulnerabilities in 2019: Report

Google's Android is the most popular mobile operating system globally. But the OS is also infamous for security vulnerabilities. A new report by TheBestVPN reveals that Android had the highest number of vulnerabilities in 2019 compared to other operating systems.

Data collated from the National Institute of Standards and Technology's National Vulnerability Database shows Android had 414 disclosed vulnerabilities in 2019. Android is followed by Debian Linux which had 360 vulnerabilities. This wasn't the case in 2018 though as Debian Linux had the highest number of vulnerabilities reaching 1,197. However, the previous two years Android topped with 843 in 2017 and 525 in 2016. Also, between 1999 and 2019 there have been a total of 2,563 vulnerabilities discovered in Android.

What's highlighted in the report is how Android's competitor iOS doesn't make the list at all. This was despite iOS suffering a two-year breach which affected thousands of iPhones. Even so, iOS did not report enough vulnerability to make it to the list.

In response to this report and the comparsion with iOS, Google told Fast Company, "We're committed to transparency and release public security bulletins monthly on issues that have been fixed in Android to harden the security of the ecosystem. We disagree with the notion that measuring the number of security issues fixed in an OS is any indication of the security of the platform. This is actually a result of the openness of the Android ecosystem working as intended."

Google argues that Android has an open ecosystem which makes it susceptible to such security vulnerabilities. This isn't the case with Apple which has a tight security around iOS and a more secure ecosystem.