The 12 Most Vulnerable Smartphones

How vulnerable is your smartphone to malware attacks? Android is by far the most targeted mobile operating system, but some popular Android phones made by Samsung, HTC, and Motorola, fare a lot worse than others.

Bit9, an enterprise-oriented security vendor, ranked the 12 most vulnerable cell phones (the “dirty dozen”) based on how dated its software is out of the box. Android fragmentation is well documented, but your average cell phone user probably doesn’t care if he or she’s on Android 2.3 or Android 2.3.7. Functionally, the versions are similar.

Bit9’s “dirty dozen”:

Samsung Galaxy Mini (T-Mobile)

TC Desire (U.S. Cellular)

3. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 (AT&T)

4. Sanyo Zio (Sprint, Cricket Wireless)

5. HTC Wildfire (T-Mobile)

6. Samsung Epic 4G (Sprint)

7. LG Optimus S (Sprint)

8. Samsung Galaxy S (T-Mobile)

9. Motorola Droid X (Verizon)

10. LG Optimus One

11. Motorola Droid 2 (Verizon)

12. HTC Evo 4G (Sprint)