We may have thought that Android is just as safe as the iPhone when it comes to encryption, but it looks like Google’s Android operating system has a critical flaw that can be exploited to decrypt a device. Even worse, while there are patches that can fix the issue, it seems that attackers can simply downgrade to a pre-patch state, and then decrypt a target device with ease.
Security researcher Gal Beniamini demonstrated this unexpected flaw in Android encryption, as Network World explains. Full-disk encryption is available on devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop or later, and the attack works on phones that are powered by Qualcomm processors.
