Galaxy S21 Series Receive January 2022 Security Update In The US | #android | #security | #education | #technology | #infosec

The January 2022 Android security patch is now rolling out to Samsung‘s Galaxy S21 series in the US. The latest SMR (security maintenance release) brings fixes for more than 60 vulnerabilities, the company recently confirmed. The new security update has also reached several other Galaxy smartphones and tablets in recent days.

As of this writing, this month’s security update is only available to the unlocked variants of the Galaxy S21 trio in the US. But it shouldn’t be too long before users of carrier-locked versions of the phones also receive the new SMR. The update for the unlocked variants comes with firmware version G99xU1UES4BULE. The build number may vary slightly for carrier-locked versions.

Samsung releases January security update to the Galaxy S21 flagships widely

Samsung first released this month’s security update to the Galaxy S21 series last week. The initial rollout was limited to a few markets in Europe. Today, it has hit units in the US as well. Additionally, the company has also rolled out the new SMR to its latest flagships in its home country South Korea. The update there bears the firmware version G99xNKSU3BULF.

Irrespective of where you reside, the January 2022 SMR for your Samsung smartphone patches over five dozen vulnerabilities found on Google’s version of Android as well as the company’s custom software, i.e. One UI. According to the Korean brand, a handful of those were critical issues that could have caused significant damages to users if exploited in the wild. So you’d want to install the new patch as early as possible.

As said before, Samsung has also released the latest SMR to a few other Galaxy devices alongside the Galaxy S21 series. These include the Galaxy A51, Galaxy Note 10 series, Galaxy Z Fold 3, Galaxy Z Flip 3, Galaxy Fold 5G, and the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite. More Galaxy smartphones and tablets will join the party in the coming weeks.

As always, this month’s security update will reach your Samsung device over the air (OTA) in a few days if it hasn’t already. Watch out for a notification about the OTA update. You can also manually check for a new update from the Settings app on your phone. Simply scroll down to the Software update menu and tap on Download and install to see if an OTA update is available for you. If there is, you’ll be prompted to download it. Your phone will automatically restart after installing the new SMR.