A microchip security flaw has put tens of millions of Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphones at risk to hackers.
The Meltdown vulnerability, first uncovered by researchers earlier this year, affects computers, smartphones and other smart devices but was initially thought to not affect Samsung Galaxy phones.
Meltdown can be exploited by hackers to gain access to a person's private information, including banking details and passwords.
Samsung released patches earlier this year to protect Galaxy S7 devices and cyber experts warn that the latest revelations make it imperative for users to install them.
Jake Moore, a security specialist at ESET, told The Independent that Samsung users should make sure their device is updated with the latest software "as soon as they possibly can" in order to prevent hackers from gaining access to their device.
"We usually see that people, for all sorts of reasons, put them off but I can't reinforce this enough. Pivotal updates such as this could prevent a whole host of separate attacks are vital to business and consumers alike," Moore said.
"These sorts of flaws always tend to float around the time of Black Hat [security conference], however this looks like it could potentially effect millions of users so it shouldn't be taken lightly."
advice offered by Mr Moore was reiterated by Mr Shapland. "For Samsung users the fix is simple as the company have already released a patch to fix the problem," Mr Shapland said.
"This will be installed by anyone running an update on their phone, but it can take a while for people to do this. There are no known examples of the vulnerability being used on Samsung devices as yet, but it is still very important that owners of the S7 ensure their phone is up to date."
Mr Shapland also warned that the full extent of the Meltdown vulnerability may not yet have been uncovered, with possibly "many other devices" still at risk.
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