Samsung says Galaxy S III data-wiping flaw already patched, urges owners to update

Following the discovery of a flaw in the way some Samsung Android devices rendered USSD codes, allowing devices to perform a factory reset without warning, Samsung has issued a statement explaining that the issue has already been patched, urging users with older firmware versions to update their devices.

Samsung said:

“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.”

While the issue had been confirmed on a number of older Samsung devices, we were unable to recreate the bug in our own tests on a Galaxy S III handset. It lent credibility to the suggestion that only Galaxy S III handsets that hadn’t been updated recently were susceptible to the flaw.

If you own a Galaxy S III and haven’t updated your device in a while, you can download a newer update via Samsung’s KIES software or perform an over-the-air update on the device itself.

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