Thieves can steal fingerprints from selfie

Smartphone cameras are good enough to pose a threat to the users themselves. Japanese scientists have discovered that fingerprints can be easily copied from photos taken up to three meters. And there is no shortage of such on popular social networks.

According to Professor Isao Echizen of Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, all it takes is a popular selfie with a victory gesture, a finger-createdów letters „V”, In order for our fingerprints to be copied by thieves. The peace or victory sign in the photograph is a very popular trend among theód useróin social networking sites.

Echizen admitted in an interview with the Sankei Shimbun newspaper that he was easily able to copy fingerprints from photographs taken in good light, from up to three meters awayów, on której you can see the pads of the squareów. Such a photo can be taken from almost any smartphone.

With the development of technology, która uses biometric security in the form of a fingerprintów finger, new technique by thieves could put thousands of wasps at riskób on attack. Such security features are now being used more and more to protect laptops, phones or even cars.

However, in order to fall victim to this technique, a thief would have to copy fingerprints and create a form of them. It would also have to gain physical access to our property, któhe would like to steal. However, it can be expected that wkrótce there will be security features using fingerprints to block access to banking services. And this could already be decidedly more dangerous.

The easiest way to protect against this kind of theft is by covering the inner parts of the hands when taking pictures. You can also limit making them public on the web, where they are available to anyone.

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen fell victim to such theft in late 2014. At least that’s what hackers from the Chaos Computer Club group claimed at the time. The information has electrified not only politiciansów, but also the manufactureróin biometric security. A few photos taken during a press conference were reportedly enough to copy the minister’s fingerprint, but the entire process of obtaining the fingerprint was not shownów, so the information was considered unconfirmed.