Smartphone Fingerprint Security Is A Bad Idea, Experts Say

The idea behind the smartphone fingerprint scanner was to prevent other people from accessing the device that they did not own as well as to make certain transactions like online payments much easier. Unfortunately, it would seem that this practice is not as secure as a lot of people have come to believe since it comes with a significant amount of risks.

Conventional wisdom dictates that no two fingerprints are alike, but this is not necessarily the case, TechXplore reports. While it’s true that most people will never have an exact match in fingerprints, limitations in the current technology can offer enough similarities to trick smartphone security systems to believe that the rightful owner of the phone is the one accessing it.

This is what New York University Tandon School of Engineering and Michigan State University College of Engineering researchers were able to ascertain after looking into how smartphone scanners identify and store fingerprint information. It turns out that the full fingerprint isn’t even necessary as partial prints are all that the scanners look for.

As a result of this discovery, a hypothesis was created which suggested that with enough partial prints from different people, a match would be found that would allow one master key to access any smartphone. This is exactly what the researchers were able to do, Telegraph reports.

Now, it’s worth noting that the current master unlocking device that they have right now is only 65 percent effective, but this is enough to affect a significant number of smartphones. On top of that, the technology could be refined in such as a way as to make practically infallible.

Creating something like a master key for all smart devices using fingerprint scanning security systems and bringing it to the public’s attention is important for several reasons. One, it alerts users of the potential dangers of their dependence on such a system. Another reason is to help smartphone companies improve their security protocols before the vulnerability becomes a huge problem.