Samsung Releases OTA Patch to Fix Remote Swipe Hack Issue

Thank the stars; Samsung has finally fixed the remote security break swipe issue. This is a follow up post to one of the recent reports about Samsung Remote Swipe Hack that wasn’t just constrained to Samsung Galaxy S3, as the hackers reportedly restored various other Samsung cell phone models to factory default settings.

The OTA, or more commonly known as ‘Over the Air’ upgrade is already made available by Samsung through respective mobile service providers. If you haven’t been prompted for the upgrade, wait till your turn comes.

What Does the New Upgrade Do?

Before the update, hackers could remotely swipe your complete Samsung Galaxy S3 data to factory settings. In severe cases, where business personnel had to work with hundreds of clients, important text messages and emails, such security breach was completely unaffordable.

Ravi Borgaonkar, one of the security researchers to detect this flaw during its initial days, said during an Argentina based conference, “The flaw is basically present in Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface technology.” Since the UI is directly responsible for handling different data codes that make the S3 and its relative models work as intended, it was easier for hackers to destroy important phone data.

Malware junkies and small time hackers took on to the internet to set up remote websites and fake Google Play Store applications to coax users into clicking their links. What happened next was a security breach through QR codes, SMS and outgoing website links. Previously we cautioned users about disabling automatic QR code detection and opening of any URLs that might look a little shady.

Word from Samsung:

As of this moment, we have received no word from Samsung as to how they handled the flaw. Borgaonkar was the only source who has been quoted as “issue resolved successfully”. Other than him, no one has made any public statements concerning the amount of damage caused by Samsung’s trusty ‘TouchWiz UI’.