US regulators seek information about security updates for phones, software from technology majors

Apple, Microsoft, Google and BlackBerry and other companies are under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over whether they had been slow in applying security updates to their phones and software.

In letters to Apple, BlackBerry, Google, HTC America, LG Electronics USA, Microsoft, Motorola Mobility and Samsung Electronics America the regulators explained their investigation and asked for help from firms.

The FCC explained that the investigation was being conducted in order to better understand, and ultimately to improve, the security of mobile devices.

The firms have been asked to explain their security provisions, when and why patches were released and what, if anything, caused the patches to be delayed.

According to the FTC, the investigations sought information about how security threats, such as Android menace Stagefright, came to be a problem, and whether older hardware and software got the same attention as newer versions.

"As consumers and businesses turn to mobile broadband to conduct ever more of their daily activities, the safety of their communications and other personal information is directly related to the security of the devices they use," said the FCC in a statement about the investigation.

The regulators said they sought to ''better understand'' how the industry issued security updates to address flaws in smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.

All the companies that had been approached by either body would need to provide a written response within 45 days.

The FCC said it had ordered the companies to provide information about ''the factors that they consider in deciding whether to patch a vulnerability on a particular mobile device.''