As we were rejoiced with the arrival of Samsung's latest flagship smartphone, Samsung Galaxy s5 in town, this unexpected news on the product had thrown users into disappointment. Just after some days on sale, it has been pinpoint that Samsung Galaxy s5's fingerprint scanner has been hacked using a glue mould.
According to sources, the Berlin based Security Research Labs (SRLabs) had tried to invalidate the attribute to bespeak on how easily the scanner can be spoofed. SRL managed to produce a mould from the fingerprint on the smartphone screen and transferred the mould with the aid of graphite spray and glue. SRL researchers abstracted the forge fingerprint over the sensor, imitating a finger swipe.
Nevertheless, this unauthorised access has manifest the smartphone's biometric scanner to confront the same issue as iPhone 5s. Yet, there are dissimilarities on how the fingerprint scanner are employed on both devices.
To our apprehension, touch ID needs its user to enter the password only once before they can use their fingerprint to unlock their phone. IPhone 5s users are required to enter the password once, each time they reboot their smartphone. Woefully, there aren't such techniques in Galaxy s5 after rebooting the phone. The more defeating fact is that the users do not require a password to use PayPal and make any settlement through the service.
While Apple currently limits its fingerprint scanner to unlock the iPhone and verifying purchases in its own online store, Samsung is the first to allow its sensor to be used by third-party apps that add its Pass API (application program interface) to their code.
Since only restricted details can be retrieved presently, Ben Schlabs, the project manager of SRL, informed BBC that : "It will become a much bigger concern when fingerprint scanning becomes more prevalent in different applications. "If you think into the future, once ATMs have fingerprint scanners and once heads of state start using fingerprint authentication, it's going to become a lot more attractive". He also uttered that once people develop better or faster methods, or once there are fingerprint databases of images that get leaked, it's definitely a concern."
To infer, every inventions has its ups and flaws. As for now, be an effectual and smart user.
Sources :- BBC Tech, Sammobile
