Samsung updates the Galaxy S III to resolve its remote wipe issue

A few days ago a software-related issue with the the phones running Samsung's TouchWiz UI was discovered, which allowed hackers to perform a remote wipe command on your phone from distance, by pushing a special code to it, which didn't require any user confirmation. Well, the good news is that Samsung has already pushed an OTA update for the Galaxy S III that resolves the problem, so if you are not running the latest software version, now's the time to perform an update.

The flaw itself has stemmed from the way Samsung's TouchWiz handles USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) codes. Apparently, if those codes are embedded in a web page, to which you are redirected in some way, what would follow is a wipe now, ask questions later. Thankfully, the problem is now a thing of the past for GS III users, but it looks like some other TouchWiz handsets are still vulnerable. Let's hope that Samsung is going to fix them as quickly as it fixed the GS III.

source: SlashGear