I found out that my mom is using an older phone that serves her just fine, but last recieved updates in 2021.
Realistically, how dangerous is this? What are the scenarios that could potentially happen with a phone that out of date?
She may be open to something like lineage OS, but I don’t want to make her phone less familiar for her, which would be harder to use. She is not very techy but also not fearful of a little tinkering. I don’t live near her so she will not have anyone knowledgeable to troubleshoot if the need arises.
I’m not a infosec person at ALL so I genuinely don’t know what she is exposed to.
Let me know if I should post this in another community instead.
The worst case risk is her entire financial net worth.
Criminals target the elderly, and an unpatched phone is a way for them to control a good percentage of what she experiences.
A vulnerable phone can result in an empty bank account.
The most common approach is to get control of an elder’s incoming messages, and use it to manipulate their perception of reality to create a crisis - one that can only be solved be spending a sizeable portion of their savings. Then repeat until there’s no more money left.
I’m not a fan of Wells Fargo, but they do have some good Guidance on preventing elder financial abuse.