Your phone's fingerprint scanner can be hacked with a printer

If you thought keeping your smartphone locked behind a fingerprint scanner would keep it secure, it may not be as stranger-proof as you thought. Researchers have found that with an inkjet printer and some special ink and paper, anyone can hack into your phone in 15 minutes or less.
Researchers Kai Cao and Anil Jain of Michigan State University have come up with a method to get through smartphones’ fingerprint scanners by scanning a fingerprint at 300 dpi and printing it on conductive AgIC paper with conductive silver ink.

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In fact, a printed fingerprint was used to fool Huawei Honor 7 and Samsung Galaxy S6 devices; the latter immediately opened when the printed fingerprint was used. Here’s a video of the fake fingerprints at work:
Although the method has only been tested on these two smartphones, multiple devices use similar fingerprint-scanning security, including iPhone 5S and later, Samsung Galaxy S5 and S7, HTC One Max and others.
Undoubtedly, future smartphones, tablets and more will use fingerprint scanners for quick authorization. As smartphones serve up more ways to store sensitive information or make payments at checkout, having proper, fool-proof security will inevitably become increasingly important. The report released by Cao and Jain is meant to spread awareness of possible hacks that can be fixed by smartphone manufacturers for the future.

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Cao and Jain’s research shows a faster way of entering a phone through a fake fingerprint than the previous hack performed by the Chaos Computer Club, which used thick toner and latex milk or wood glue to create a fake fingerprint and takes about twice as long to perform.
You can see the full details of the new research online here.

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