Samsung Releases Update and Comments on the Galaxy S III Security Vulnerability

[dgstorm]

Yesterday the story broke that Samsung's Galaxy S III and several other Samsung products were open to a security vulnerability that leaves them open to having their phones remotely wiped. Since then Samsung released a statement and an OTA update to the address the issue on the Galaxy S III. Here is Samsung's statement,

“We would like to assure our customers that the recent security issue concerning the GALAXY S III has already been resolved through a software update. We recommend all GALAXY S III customers to download the latest software update, which can be done quickly and easily via the Over-The-Air (OTA) service.”

Supposedly, the vulnerability still exists for several other Samsung devices, but Samsung has yet to comment on that. It's important to note that the issue is related to Samsung's UI overlay, TouchWiz and does not affect pure Android devices like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. While we are glad to see that Samsung has quickly admitted to and addressed the issue with the SSGS3, we would also like to hear what they are doing for any other devices that are affected. Of course, it has only been one day, so they are most likely scrambling to deal with it right now. In the mean-time, make sure you grab the OTA update ASAP, and we will keep you informed as we find out more.

Source: S3Forums via BGR

 

[trestevenson]

I can only imagine that Apple is going to ream them for this in one of their future ad campaigns.

 

[MissionImprobable]

I can only imagine that Apple is going to ream them for this in one of their future ad campaigns.

Considering that almost every version of iOS has had an exploit that allows bypassing pin unlock in initial iterations until it has been patched I doubt they will try and point that out. Every OS has vulnerabilities and no one has been so amazing that it's worth pointing the finger at another.

 

[trestevenson]

Considering that almost every version of iOS has had an exploit that allows bypassing pin unlock in initial iterations until it has been patched I doubt they will try and point that out. Every OS has vulnerabilities and no one has been so amazing that it's worth pointing the finger at another.

Good point.