If you are using Android phones that are a few years old, especially devices that have Android 7 or earlier operating system, they should be prepared for a big blow.
It’s hard to believe, but if you spend a lot of time scrolling through websites on your old Android phone, now is the time to pick up a new phone.
One of the world’s major certification authorities has warned that if you are using Android phones prior to Android Nougat 7.1.1, you will lose access to many secure sites in 2021.
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The Android Police report states that Mozilla’s partner Let’s Encrypt said that its partnership with its partner certification authority IDN Trust expires on September 1, 2021.
As there is no plan to extend the cross-sharing agreement between the two, default cross-signing for IDENT Trust’s root certificate will be stopped by Let’s Encrypt.
This root certificate is used to access multiple secure websites and the certificate will be suspended from January 11, 2021, while the cross-signing partnership will expire on September 1.
It would be a shock to know this, but one-third of web domains rely on this company’s certifications.
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According to Let’s Encrypt, 33.8% of Android users are currently using phones running Android 7.1 or older.
According to the company, most phone software has not been updated since 2016, and their root certificates can no longer be trusted.
The only way for such users to surf the web is to install Mozilla, a browser that relies on its Certificate Store, which also has the root certificate of Late Encrypt.
More than 33% of Android devices mean that millions of people will lose access to multiple websites next year.
The only way to avoid this is to buy a new smartphone or the company will issue an update which is very unlikely.
Companies that make Android phones often do not update their operating systems, or for a limited time.