Clicking on Malicious Link Could Wipe Out Your Samsung Galaxy S3

A new vulnerability has come to light that allows Samsung Galaxy S3 to be totally wiped out by clicking on a malicious website link. I’m not gonna go all techie on this matter so I’m just gonna keep it simple and in plain English.

If you’re an owner of the new Samsung Galaxy S3, do be careful with the links you click, especially those shortened URLs shared on social media sites. These malicious links could wipe out your smartphone entirely and there’s no possible way to stop it once it happened.

An expert by the name of Ravi Borgaonkar recently highlighted the issue at the Ekoparty security conference and there is more than one way it could attack your smartphone. The vulnerability makes use of USSD codes, which is a command language used by handsets to communicate with the carries.

There are number of ways that owners could be duped into visiting a malicious website simply by clicking on a link, scan a QR Code, and even scan an NFC tag containing a malicious link. Once the process is running, there is no possible way to stop or undo it. There’s even a possibility that it can kill your SIM card.

The simplest way to prevent such attack is to be wary of your usual behavior while using your smartphone. Avoid clicking on links, usually shortened URLs by an unknown person. QR Codes is pretty convenient by stay away from scanning any at the moment and do be careful with whom you’re sharing stuff via NFC. It is also being suggested that switching from the default browser to Google’s Chrome browser will protect you against this hack.

It has also been identified that the Galaxy Beam, Advance S, Galaxy Ace and Galaxy S2 are also vulnerable to the hack. So do beware.

If you’re interested to find out more, do watch this video.

 

[Source: Forbes.com]

 

Updated:

“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 download the latest software update, which can be done quickly and easily via the Over-The-Air (OTA) service,” said Samsung in a statement

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Tagged Galaxy S2, Galaxy S3, Hacking, Samsung