Did A Samsung Security Risk Affect 600 Million Galaxy Phones?

A startup digital security company NowSecure said 600 million users of smartphones from SAMSUNG ELECT LTD SSNLF may face a "significant security risk."

The Oak Park, Illinois-based security company said Samsung earlier this year began providing a patch to mobile network operators, and said the bug affects Samsung's recently released Galaxy S6 phones.

But "it is unknown if the carriers have provided the patch to the devices on their network," according to NowSecure.

The story was apparently first reported Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal ahead of NowSecure's Wednesday posting concerning the security flaw and its related presentation at a Black Hat hackers conference in London.

NowSecure said it uncovered the flaw in November, according to the Journal, and informed Samsung as well as the federal Computer Emergency and Readiness Team, or CERT.

When a security company finds flaws in consumer software, they generally give software makers time to fix the bug before going public, WSJ said.

NowSecure completed a $12.5 million Series A financing round in December, and changed its name from viaForensics.

The financing was led by Baird Capital's Venture Capital group, with participation from existing investor Jump Capital and new investor Math Venture Partners.