Smart phones are essentially little computers in your pocket. So since they are computers, they can be hacked.

A group of researchers at the University of California report they have up to a 92 percent success rate in hacking android based cell phones.

According to information from the International Data Corporation android-based phones hold the majority of the market share, sorry IOS users.

The hack is achieved by first getting the user to download an application that contains malicious code; that app then uses the phone’s shared memory to gather information from other apps on the device. The app the researchers found the easiest to hack? Gmail. Banking apps were also affected.

This research was performed on a Samsung Galaxy S3, but they feel that since android-based phones work off of the same operating system, it would work on any such device.

Don’t feel too safe Windows and Apple phone users. While they haven’t tested their hack on those devices, they feel confident the method will work on those phones as well.

These types of research always seem to make the company that made the device look lax in their own product development, but the reality is the findings actually help the company.

By finding the exploits through controlled research first, the company has time to fix the problem before a hacker with malicious intent on stealing your money or personal information does.

As our lives become more technologically involved, we carry around more and more of our personal information for criminals to steal.

In the end there will always be a cat and mouse game between the criminals, and those who aim to protect your personal information. So really there’s not much to do but sit and wait for the problem to be fixed. That, and you may want to be careful about what apps you download and install on your phone.