Samsung Galaxy S III receives a software update to resolve remote wipe issue

A software released issue was discovered on the TouchWiz UI was discovered recently which allowed hackers to perform a remote wipe on your device from a distance. This wouldn't require any user confirmation and would result in you loosing all your data.

Luckily Samsung was quick to respond and have pushed an OTA update aimed at fixing the issue for the Samsung Galaxy S III. So if you haven’t already updated make sure you do so immediately.

The flaw comes from the way Samsung handles USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) codes in their TouchWiz UI. By redirecting a user to a web page where these codes are embedded the hacker can wipe the user’s device.

While Samsung has fixed the issue for GS III users, other TouchWiz handsets are still vulnerable to this bug. While we understand Samsung prioritizing their flagship device, we hope a fix will be available for other devices soon.


source – SlashGear