Android smartphone users alert! Your device could be hacked - These brands at risk

This is no secret that while Android might be the more popular operating systems, it is also more prone to security breaches. Several types of threat to Android smartphones have been reported by security researchers in the recent time. The latest in the list puts your phone at risk through a simple SMS. According to a report by Check Point, hackers are sending SMS which will have new phone setting and once the latter accepts the request, the attacker will be able to route user’s traffic through its own proxy.   

The process used in these types of attacks is called over-the-air (OTA) update - which is a wireless delivery of new software or data to mobile devices. Usually, these OTA updates are sent by the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for firmware update or to configure phones for use on their networks by data providers.

However, these OTA updates can be sent by anyone and the method is being used to access your data.

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Which brands are at risk?

Smartphone brands like Samsung, Huawei, LG and Sony are at the top of this list. All these brands allegedly allow unauthenticated OMA CP messages. Most of these brands are trying to counter the problem. Samsung has added a fix for this phishing flaw in its Security Maintenance Release for May (SVE-2019-14073) while LG released its fix in July (LVE-SMP-190006). 

Huawei too is planning to include UI fixes for OMA CP in the next generation of Mate series or P series smartphones.