Asia Tech Wire (Aug 19) -- The U.S. government has issued an emergency notice requiring federal employees to update their Samsung Galaxy phones by August 28, or else they will be prohibited from using the devices.

This is another emergency action following the July requirement for Pixel phone users to update their systems.

The incident was prompted by Google's discovery of two serious software vulnerabilities, which it confirmed had actually been exploited.

The vulnerabilities could lead to elevated privileges, which could allow an attacker to utilize apps to gain access to otherwise inaccessible sensitive information, including work and personal information.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has listed both vulnerabilities on its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog.

Due to the severity and potential harm of the vulnerabilities, the U.S. government is requiring federal workers to complete system updates within 21 days.