Tech Watch: Warning For Android Users

(KCBS) - Researchers at the University of Ulm said Android users who log in to random wi-fi networks to go online may be putting their personal information at risk.

CNET Editor-at-Large Brian Cooley explains that these Android smartphones have, among other things, wi-fi built into them so they can log onto wi-fi hot spots anywhere that it's available.

Places like Starbucks are trustworthy, but if you find a random wi-fi hot spot and you log on to it, Cooley warns, you can be "hacked by someone who is unscrupulously running a hot spot. And they could technically lift personal data off your phone when you're on their wi-fi network."

This affects any Android phone running the 2.3.3 operating system. That means 99.7 percent of Android users are vulnerable.

To protect yourself, Cooley recommends that you turn off the phone's feature where it will log on without authorization to any open wi-fi hot spot.

You can hear his Tech Watch report Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:50 P.M. on KCBS All News 740AM and 106.9FM.

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