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My phone (Android 7) has been rooted for years. That means it hasn't updated in years. I'm wondering if it's safe to do financial transactions on it...like download my banks app and a bitcoin e-wallet.

If not, then how can I make it safe while maintaining root?

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    I guess the question can be shorted to "is phone banking safe". The answer would be "No" – especially not on a device without the latest security patches. What is more, banking apps would not work on it – funnily not because of the missing security fixes, which banking institutions seem to find irrelevant, but because it's rooted (which they find more dangerous, though exactly by means of root one can increase security)…
    – Izzy ♦
    Oct 23, 2020 at 7:53
  • "...though exactly by means of root one can increase security" How so? And would it supercede the security from the latest patches?
    – Kaftee
    Oct 23, 2020 at 8:20
  • Rooting itself does not increase security but if you unlock your device and install a customROM (which banking apps also consider as "rooted") with latest security patches this is more secure that the stock firmware that have not seen an update for years.
    – Robert
    Oct 23, 2020 at 9:50
  • Any suggestions on such Tom's. Can I use Google play on them?
    – Kaftee
    Oct 23, 2020 at 11:20
  • The means Robert pointed out are part of it (Custom ROMs with more recent security patches). Others include e.g. proper firewalls like AFWall+ (non-root firewalls utilize VPN so you cannot use a VPN at the same time as there can be only one active at a time), blocking specific tracking modules in apps (or misleading them so tracking becomes nil), and more. This is a bit more complex, though, and not answered in a comment or even a "short answer" here as it rather needs a long tutorial to cover just half of it. And yes, if you insist you can install GApps. Or their alternative, microG.
    – Izzy ♦
    Oct 23, 2020 at 18:58

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Stock roms are really unsafe with root because they are not made and optimized to be used with root access. Therefore it's always recommended to flash a secure custom rom. You can try lineage OS.. regarded as very secure.

I believe that custom open source Android ROMs like Lineage OS are secure just because of the fact that their full source code is open source.

And the professionals and hobbyists out there definitely would check and ensure that it has no secret bugs.

The developers would also not like to damage their reputations by open sourcing a software with spywares that everyone including the topmost brains in the world can scrutinize.

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