{"id":103,"date":"2025-07-17T09:26:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T09:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/103\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T09:26:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T09:26:47","slug":"samsungs-new-kill-switch-is-critical-for-all-galaxy-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/103\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung\u2019s New \u2018Kill Switch\u2019 Is Critical For All Galaxy Users"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/960x0.jpg\" alt=\"Samsung Galaxy S25 And Galaxy S25 Ultra Mobile Phones\" data-height=\"1950\" data-width=\"2926\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"color-body light-text\" role=\"button\">Get used to hitting the switch.<\/p>\n<p>NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>We live in interesting times when it comes to Android. While Google\u2019s Pixel has raced ahead with new security features through Android 16, Samsung is edging ever closer with One UI 8, seeking to repair its One UI 7 disaster. And this month, Pixel users drew a <a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/07\/15\/google-pixels-unstoppable-android-updates-suddenly-stop\/\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/07\/15\/google-pixels-unstoppable-android-updates-suddenly-stop\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"blank security update\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">blank security update<\/a> for the first time, while for <a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/07\/08\/samsung-issues-critical-update-for-all-galaxy-smartphones\/\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/07\/08\/samsung-issues-critical-update-for-all-galaxy-smartphones\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"Samsung\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Samsung<\/a> it was business as usual.<\/p>\n<p>Android 16 brings major security and privacy enhancements to Android, especially with Google\u2019s new Advanced Protection Mode, which restricts dangerous connections and sideloading amongst other things. But for Samsung it also fixes an extraordinarily awkward mistake, <a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/02\/27\/samsungs-security-mistake-change-your-galaxy-settings-now\/\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/02\/27\/samsungs-security-mistake-change-your-galaxy-settings-now\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"with user data leaking from its Secure Folder\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">with user data leaking from its Secure Folder<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"embed-base color-body color-body-border link-embed embed-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/07\/16\/are-these-dangerous-apps-already-hacking-your-phone\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"These Dangerous Apps Hack Your Smartphone\u2014One Click Stops It\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-ga-track=\"forbesEmbedly:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/07\/16\/are-these-dangerous-apps-already-hacking-your-phone\/\">ForbesThese Dangerous Apps Hack Your Smartphone\u2014One Click Stops ItBy Zak Doffman<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This mistake stems from Samsung launching its own secure folder versus adopting Google\u2019s standard version of the same. Samsung adopted a work profile for its security repository, which enabled some other functions on the phone to see what apps and some media in the folder itself, potentially leaking that externally.<\/p>\n<p>With <a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.samsung.com\/uk\/support\/mobile-devices\/what-is-the-secure-folder-and-how-can-i-use-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.samsung.com\/uk\/support\/mobile-devices\/what-is-the-secure-folder-and-how-can-i-use-it\/\" aria-label=\"Samsung\">Samsung<\/a> telling users \u201cone of the most useful tools on your Galaxy device is the Secure Folder, where you can store everything you want with maximum security,\u201d when news broken of this leak, it was critical it was fixed quickly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"color-body light-text\" role=\"button\">New kill switch hides the Secure Folder.<\/p>\n<p>Android Authority<\/p>\n<p>And One UI 8 does exactly that. It upgrades Secure Folder with independent security to ensure that shared biometric access to a phone cannot compromise this repository, and it also hides the folder, its apps and its data from view.<\/p>\n<p>This \u201c<a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/06\/01\/samsungs-galaxy-kill-switch-completely-changes-your-phone\/\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/06\/01\/samsungs-galaxy-kill-switch-completely-changes-your-phone\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"kill switch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">kill switch<\/a>\u201d quick setting, as it has been called, is akin to an on\/off button for Secure Folder, and enables everything to be quickly hidden with just a click. But it now turns out that the kill switch is more critical than we thought.<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"embed-base color-body color-body-border link-embed embed-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/07\/16\/microsoft-confirms-new-upgrade-deadlines-move-to-windows-11\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Microsoft Confirms New Upgrade Deadlines\u2014\u2018Move To Windows 11\u2019\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-ga-track=\"forbesEmbedly:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/07\/16\/microsoft-confirms-new-upgrade-deadlines-move-to-windows-11\/\">ForbesMicrosoft Confirms New Upgrade Deadlines\u2014\u2018Move To Windows 11\u2019By Zak Doffman<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Per <a class=\"color-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/samsung-fix-secure-folder-flaw-3577852\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/samsung-fix-secure-folder-flaw-3577852\/\" aria-label=\"Android Authority\">Android Authority<\/a>, while Samsung has fixed the data leakage with a new private profile, \u201cthis protection is only active when you fully <a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/secure-folder-one-ui-8-3562051\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/secure-folder-one-ui-8-3562051\/\" aria-label=\"hide the Secure Folder\">hide the Secure Folder<\/a>, not just close it.\u201d This removes the icon but also \u201cencrypts the data inside, which stops its apps from running and prevents them from sending notifications.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It seems an oversight that what should be basic protection requires users to fully hide the Secure Folder, but if it works then it fixes the problem. But this means Galaxy users will need to get used to hitting that kill switch more often than they might expect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get used to hitting the switch. NurPhoto via Getty Images We live in interesting times when it comes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[121,64,63,119,120,124,115,116,117,123,122,118,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-android-16-samsung","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-kill-switch-samsung","12":"tag-one-ui-8","13":"tag-pixel-vs-iphone","14":"tag-samsung-s25-upgrade","15":"tag-samsung-s26-leak","16":"tag-samsung-s27-leak","17":"tag-samsung-vs-iphone","18":"tag-samsung-vs-pixel","19":"tag-secure-folder","20":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}