Well, that was quick, not too long after the iPhone 5S was launched in the other parts of the world, it looks like the Touch ID fingerprint scanner has been hacked. Touting high security that could eliminate the need for passwords forever, the Touch ID isn’t that secure after all, all you need is obtain a used drinking glass of the phone owner, and you can somewhat easily retrieve the fingerprint from the glass and use it to unlock their iPhone 5S.
The hack was discovered by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) who took a picture of the fingerprint on the glass using 2400 dpi resolution. After cleaning up the image, they inverted it and laser printed with 1200 dpi onto a transparent sheet with a thick toner setting. They then applied pink latex milk or white woodglue onto the pattern created by the toner onto a transparent sheet. Once cured, the latex sheet will then have the fingerprint’s pattern, apply a tiny bit of moist and viola! it works as demonstrated in the video below:
Sure, it’s no walk in the park to hack it and it sure takes a lot of time and tools to do the work, but it just goes to show that nothing is impossible. Let’s just hope Apple fixes it before it gets launched here in Malaysia. I strongly believe that nothing is ever secure in the digital world so if it’s completely confidential, never store them on your phone be it photos, videos, your bank account details, or passwords to any of your online accounts.
(Source: Gizmodo)
