Especially for smartphones, biometric security through fingerprint scanning is considered close to foolproof as security systems go. However, recent reports surfaced pointing to smartphone and data vulnerability brought on by fingerprint security.
The Verge reports that with the help of a dental mold cast and play-dough fingerprint security may be bypassed using faked prints. Granted that the original print has to be available for cast-making for this fingerprint security bypass to work.
The fact, however, remains that smartphone biometric security at its current state can be fooled. The tragedy is that the test conducted by The Verge reportedly used a simple smartphone biometric security hack method on iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 Edge.
Use of 3D printing and similar technology on stored print images may increase accuracy rate for this biometric security hack. Given that most smartphone users have had their fingerprints stored at one point or another in their lives, how much privacy can biometric security really offer?
How to fake a fingerprint and break into a phone https://t.co/4HetAb7DI3 pic.twitter.com/4YO5YkNPDc
— The Verge (@verge) May 3, 2016
The Verge points out that stolen prints are harder to manage concerning smartphone biometric security. Whereas pass codes and PINs may be changed, fingerprints cannot.
Yahoo reports that fingerprint security and similar biometric security are methods of convenience if nothing else. Through fingerprint security, memorization of pass codes and PINs can become a thing of the past.
However, convenience may be a small payoff in the face of botched biometric security. Fingerprint security, as well as other forms of biometric security such as iris, voice and gain scanning can be hacked.
Buttonless fingerprint sensors are coming to phones this year https://t.co/zIA08UQGEf pic.twitter.com/zx16IrWw8W — The Verge (@verge) May 3, 2016
Joseph Lorenzo Hall of the Center for Democracy & Technology, recommends that rather than first-line authentication, biometric security would do better as a second line of defense. This is mainly because biometric is neither secret nor changeable.
"You cannot use a biometric as a primary authenticator, or you're gonna have a bad time," Joseph Lorenzo Hall stated. Joseph Lorenzo Hall, however, qualified that smartphone fingerprint security such as Apple's should still be used. "I would recommend using it and not worrying about it," Hall said.
The Verge places emphasis on the strength of fingerprinting and similar biometrics in terms of identification. However, identification and security are very different things. Smartphone fingerprint security and similar biometric security may not necessarily guarantee that user data are safe and private.
