Samsung, one of the biggest phone makers today and of all-time, is facing a problem. In fact, Samsung faces 600 million problems.
Let me explain. There is a default keyboard threat facing as many as 600 million Samsung phones. The pre-installed SwiftKey keyboard looked for language updates while over unencrypted territory and in plain text. This leaves the door open to create phony proxy servers. These servers can send malware to venerable devices and data to keep bad code on the device. That way, they can further exploit the users’ device. Do you know the power this gives a hacker? They can exploit this keyboard mishap and get a Samsung user’s name, address, email, SSN, text messages, bank information, social media passwords, and anything else they want. Not only that, the malware can be used to spy on users near and far, invading privacy. This discovery was made by Ryan Welton, a security expert representing a firm called NowSecure. Welton talked about the potential attack at a Blackhat Security Summit. According to NowSecure CEO Andrew Hoog, this threat likely affected Samung Android devices like S3, S4, S5, Galaxy Note 3, and Galaxy Note 4. A SwiftKey spokesperson said they are investigating this threat. The spokesperson also said SwiftKey apps on Google Play and the App Store isn’t affected by this threat.
Let me make it clear: This is just a warning. The cyber attack hasn’t happened and it isn’t happening now. So don’t go throwing away your Samsung Galaxy phones away. But you should be alerted of this threat. Some have said to me, “Talking about the threat will give hackers ideas.” Believe me, they’ve already thought of this. Ryan Welton is investigating and bloggers like me are reporting this because you need to know. Now what is SwiftKey going to do about it? What are you going to do about it?