Same for me! So follow-up question, how do we know if an android app is the real deal? I opened the app switcher and it certainly said "Google Play Services" on top of the window asking for my password, and had the correct logo, but could other app present itself in the same way?
That's a clever trick, I'll remember it for next time something similar happens.
I had the same paranoia as several other people in this thread (don't enter password if you're prompted unexpected or without clear reason). I had the fortune only a "trash" gmail account got locked out, not my main one. So I verified on another machine, password was unchanged, checked if I really hadn't registered any other important accounts with that email, and just gave in after an hour or so, to make the notification go away.
You don't.
Not that it really matters, if you care about security you shouldn't be using Android in the first place.
If you go out to a shop and buy 100 Android phones, at least 99 will be running outdated OS versions with known security issues and no updates available.
Where I am (the Netherlands), Android is way more popular than iOS--I'm not attaching value judgement to popularity or otherwise, nor am I particularly doubtful of your claim that the average (cheap) Android phone is running an outdated version.
But if that's the case then what is going on?
Are they not juicy targets for hackers? (tons of personal information, botnet possibilities, seems valuable to me)
Or are they in fact being hacked quietly and we're not hearing much about it? Is everyone's cheap phone already part of a botnet and nobody realizes?
Is it perhaps that the exploits require physical proximity that hackers don't deem worth the risk?
BB10 would have been even better but they pulled the plug on that one.
Comparing stock iOS with some old unupdated cheap phone with bloated Android is not fair.
- hardware Secure Enclave (as time of writing, only Samsung devices and latest Google Nexus also have a similar hardware, as far as I know)
- strong sandboxing (again, only Samsung devices with Knox can really compare)
- restrictions on which apps you can get, that filters on malicious apps (ex: fake gmail app). It is void if you use jailbroken iOS or allow sideloading on Android.
- security updates are both more frequent (except Google devices, all Android manufacturers always lag behind for updates), and available to older devices (varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, but it's generally way less than Apple)
Of course, you need to factor in the delay to respond to security flaws (I don't have that kind of data), and other factors too, as well as decide if iOS suits you. That's for you to decide.
No, but updated stock android phones are not really a thing, are they ?
I can't really fathom how someone would have gained access to my account with those steps in place (and honestly if they did, I wouldn't even be mad because it's so impressive)... so I immediately assumed that Google was having a log-in problem.