New Delhi: Samsung Android smartphone users are advised to be extra cautious while clicking any links. Security experts have found Samsung smartphones vulnerable to remote attacks, allowing hackers to remotely wipe out all data.
The Internet is abuzz with reports, which claim that a single line of code can wipe all data on certain Samsung smartphones running Google's Android OS.
According to CNET, apart from the Galaxy S III, "the current, yet unofficial, list of devices affected by the potential exploit is said to include the Galaxy Beam, S Advance, Galaxy Ace, and Galaxy S II. Each of these runs a version of Android with Samsung's own TouchWiz user interface."
Google's Galaxy Nexus, also manufactured by Samsung, does not appear to be affected by the vulnerability. Reports suggest that Samsung devices running the company's TouchWiz software only appear to be affected.
The hack, which was demonstrated by Ravi Borgaonkar, a researcher in the the Security in Telecommunications department at Technical University Berli, at the Ekoparty security conference, showed that the Galaxy S III is susceptible to the simple reset. "A simple USSD code – that could be sent from a website, or pushed to the handset by NFC or triggered by a QR code – can reset the Galaxy S III or indeed other Samsung handsets," said Slashgear.
Once the process is initiated, the user cannot cancel it. Although the user is able to see the process going on, but it cannot be undone.
Slashgear reports that Samsung has fixed the issue by a security patch that it released as an OTA (over the air) update for the Galaxy S III. However, it is not clear if the fix is available for other Samsung phones affected by the vulnerability.
####Here is a video demonstration of how your phones can be attacked remotely.
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