Disable 2G on your Android phone to prevent hackers from intercepting your device on the network and stop them from stealing your data. Google has raised this major warning to billions of Android smartphone users across the globe.
The threat for these phone users is around SMS Blasters that can disguise themselves as 4G or a 5G network and once you connect to the range, it switches your phone’s network to 2G and makes use of its limited security standards to attack the device.
2G Networks Not Safe: Here’s Why
Most countries have already switched off their 2G network towers and migrated to 3G or upgraded directly to 4G to support the increasing demand for these networks. However, 2G’s legacy support is warranted in countries like India where feature phones are still a force to reckon with.
Google and the telecom bodies like GSMA are doing their best to get these 2G folks to upgrade so that risks like SMS Blasters do not become a widespread issue. Most people would say that nobody uses 2G networks on their smartphone these days but Google is worried about the possible spoofing that can be done without alarming the users and making them connect behind the scenes to a fraudulent 4G/5G network.
The other concern about SMS Blasters is related to their availability and ease with which anyone can set it up and attack. Google has realised the dangers of letting 2G networks run in the wild so it introduced an option to disable 2G networks from Android 12 onwards for Pixel devices.
We haven’t been able to verify if this feature is available for Android phones for other brands but we highly suggest your network access settings keep you away from the less secure and legacy 2G networks to avoid these attacks.
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