For the most part, most smartphones these days are really secure when it comes to preventing access from unauthorized users, thanks to many smartphone OEMs adopting fingerprint sensors which are way better compared to previous security methods like using passcodes.
However, it seems that some researchers at Michigan State College have managed to fool the fingerprint safety on Samsung and Huawei smartphones using a normal inkjet printer along with a particular ink and paper… and this method will unlock a smartphone as seen in the video below.
This method takes lower than 15 minutes, the teachers say, and it might open the door to hackers eager to get on the knowledge in your smartphone, as long as they get a replica of your fingerprint.
According to the researchers at Michigan State University, “We enrolled the left index finger of one of the authors and used the printed 2D fingerprint of this left index finger to unlock the fingerprint recognition systems in these phones. We tried several fingers of different subjects and all of them can successfully hack these two phones.”
Now the question is, should you be worried? Perhaps, but it should be noted that the hacker will need access to a high-resolution scan of your fingerprint, meaning that you probably won’t have to worry about your run-of-the-mill thief, but at the same time OEMs should probably look into this.
