SmartPhone Security Alert: Cyber threat is looming on crores of Android smartphones being used in India. CERT-In, the cyber security agency of the Government of India, has issued a warning regarding several serious security vulnerabilities in the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. This flaw can give hackers the opportunity to enter the phone and steal data, crash apps and access system controls. The most worrying thing is that this threat is not limited to just flagship phones but budget and mid range devices are also vulnerable to it. In such a situation, users have been advised to update their phones immediately.
According to the latest advisory of CERT-In, this threat has been found in many popular Snapdragon processors of Qualcomm. This includes chipsets like Snapdragon 8 Gen Series, Snapdragon 7 Series, Snapdragon 6 Series, Snapdragon 4 Gen Series and Snapdragon 888. This means that everything from premium flagships to budget smartphones can fall under this threat. The agency said that due to these vulnerabilities, hackers can carry out cyber attacks like remote code execution, memory corruption, denial of service and privilege escalation. If you understand in simple language, a cyber criminal can steal sensitive information by accessing your phone's system.
The effect of this security flaw is not limited to just app crashing. According to the report, hackers can take advantage of these vulnerabilities to access personal data, banking information, photos, passwords and other sensitive documents present in the phone. In some cases, the entire system of the device may also be affected. CERT-In said that this problem has come to light due to technical shortcomings like memory corruption, buffer overflow, weak input validation and wrong authorization. The biggest thing is that the danger is not limited to smartphones only. Tablets, wireless devices, networking products, automotive systems and Internet of Things i.e. IoT devices can also be affected by this.
The government agency has advised all users and organizations to immediately install the latest security updates. Smartphone companies are gradually releasing patches to fix these vulnerabilities, so go to the phone's settings and check for software updates. Apart from this, one should avoid downloading apps from any unknown website or third party source. Cyber experts say that sometimes old phones are at greater risk due to not getting updates. In such a situation, ignoring security patches can prove costly. If the phone is suddenly becoming slow, apps are closing on their own or the battery is draining rapidly then the device should be checked immediately.
