Items tagged with fingerprint scanner
Technology companies sometimes talk about wanting to move on from passwords in favor of other authentication methods, with biometric security leading the way. But are biometric methods really secure? Researchers from Cisco's Talos division put fingerprint scanning under the microscope, and found some interesting shortcomings. Fingerprint scanners are in lots of places these days. Your smartphone probably has one, assuming it is relatively modern. So do encrypted USB devices, padlocks, and laptops, including Apple's MacBook Pro and a bunch of Windows system equipped with support for Windows Hello (which can include other security methods as well). Now here is what's frightening—in its testing,...
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Qualcomm has pulled the covers off a new ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint scanner that is an improvement over its predecessor that was introduced in the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 families. The new sensor is called 3D Sonic Max, and it has a significantly larger surface area for scanning. While the original in-screen 3D Sonic Sensor only had enough scanning space to scan a single finger, the new one is large enough to scan two fingers. Qualcomm says that the new scanner is 17x larger than the old one and will enable advanced security features. The new sensor uses the same ultrasonic scanning techniques that the smaller sensor used last year, and you can now scan two fingers at once...
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AI can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what the AI is designed to do. Many AIs are meant to do things like help doctors diagnose disease, though other AI technologies can be turned towards more nefarious deeds. For example, a team of IEEE researchers has devised a method of harnessing an AI to generate fake fingerprints that work like a master key, to bypass the biometric locks that are employed on smartphones. The team notes that the attack using their AI-driven method can be issued against random devices "with some probability of success." OnePlus 6T In-Display Fingerprint Scanner The technique is known as DeepMasterPrints, and the researchers liken them to a master key for...
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With smartphones going to designs that have screens covering so much of the front that the traditional fingerprint sensor can no longer fit, what to do with those sensors is a topic that manufacturers have been working on. Apple removed the fingerprint scanner for its iPhone X and instead opted for Face ID technology. Samsung has a fingerprint scanning system that will go into the Galaxy S10 that is very non-traditional. The company has seemingly confirmed that it will use a fingerprint scanner that is embedded in the screen of the smartphone. This scanner will reportedly use Qualcomm ultrasonic fingerprint scanner tech. It uses ultrasonic waves that change in intensity and position...
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Just as had been rumored in the days and weeks leading up to the Consumer Electronics Show, Sony, as expected, refreshed its mid-range smartphone lineup with the introduction of the Xperia XA2 and Xperia XA2 Ultra. The new phones represent the third-generation of the mid-range Xperia XA, and one of the things they bring to the table is a new fingerprint sensor that we hope makes it onto Sony's higher-end phones. For whatever reason, Sony has been slow to implement a fingerprint sensor into any of its phones, even though it's become a commonly found features in the smartphone sector at large. But whatever, biometric security in the form of a fingerprint sensor has finally arrived on the Xperia...
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While Apple may be grabbing the [biometric] headlines with its Face ID authentication system in the iPhone X, one company is looking to enhance existing fingerprint sensors for a new generation of flagship smartphones. Synaptics announced that it has perfected an under-the-display fingerprint scanner with what it calls Clear ID Optical Sensors. These are the world's fingerprint sensors of its kind to enter mass production for smartphones. Synaptics says that it will have branded smartphones available for demos at CES 2018 and that mass production will start with a top five OEM. The Clear ID FS9500 family is specifically designed for smartphones with bezel-free displays. The sensor...
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The smartphone world seemed poised to make a move away from fingerprint scanners that have their own space on the front of the smartphone (or on the back) to scanners that could be hidden away under the glass of the screen. Apple was one of the first to look at this back in October of 2016 when a patent showing plans for an under glass fingerprint scanner first surfaced. The catch was that Apple ultimately decided to leapfrog fingerprint recognition in favor of facial recognition. Word is that Samsung has ditched its plans to put the fingerprint scanner under the screen glass in the upcoming Galaxy S9 smartphone after failing to achieve a production-worthy solution. Samsung will now, reportedly,...
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At a time when biometric security solutions seem to be gaining traction in the mobile market, Sony for whatever reason has decided to remove the fingerprint scanner from its Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact handsets before releasing them in the United States. The curious decision comes after Sony released the same handsets with fingerprint readers in the European market.A visit to Sony Mobile's U.S. website shows the full specs and list of features for each phone, and in both cases there's no mention of a fingerprint scanner. It's possible that Sony simply forgot to jot the feature down, though the more likely scenario is it simply decided to remove the biometric security measure from its forthcoming...
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Law enforcement officials found a way to unlock a murder victim's Samsung Galaxy S6 by using specially printed copies of fingerprints on file from a previous conviction. It wasn't easy thwarting Samsung's biometric security, but with the help of Anil Jain, a professor of computer science and engineering at Michigan State University, the detectives assigned to the case were ultimately successful in tricking the phone's fingerprint recognition.It took several tries and pricey equipment for this to work. The detectives brought the phone and a copy of the victim's fingerprints to Jain with the hope that by unlocking the handset, they'd discover clues about who killed him. Jain, along with doctoral...
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Fingerprint scanning is quickly becoming a standard security feature on high-end smartphones. The perceived notion is that this type of biometric safeguard provides a superior means of security due to the unique patterns of everyone's fingers, but a new study and experiment conducted by researchers at Michigan State University shows that fingerprint scanning can be thwarted with a simple inkjet printer. Say what now? As rudimentary as that sounds, the researchers demonstrated in a video posted to YouTube exactly how this works. They used a color inkjet Brother MFC-J5910DW printer outfitted with three silver conductive ink cartridges and one normal black cartridge to print out fingerprints that...
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It's estimated that half of all smartphone shipments will have a fingerprint scanner within the next four years. Many smartphone owners already use them, whether it's for unlocking a device or making a mobile payment. That's great for convenience -- it beats having to bang out a hard-to-guess password -- but as far as security is concerned, current implementations on Android leave a lot to be desired. FireEye researchers Tao Wei and Yulong Zhang plan to present new research at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas next week that details ways hackers can extract fingerprint scans from Android devices. What's particularly sobering about the research is that it's not confined to just a single method,...
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Little by little, we're learning new things about the OnePlus 2, the successor to the popular OnePlus One that was originally supposed to launch on June 1. We still don't know when the new flagship model will be available to purchase, but in the meantime, fans of the OnePlus series can get their first glimpse of the phone, or so we think. A pair of blurry photos showing both sides of the supposed OnePlus 2 were sent to PhoneArena. The site isn't super confident in their legitimacy, noting that they're "taking these images with the proverbial grain of salt." However, the blurry shots do go in line with previous rumors that the new model will resemble its predecessor. You can make out what looks...
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In step with Apple's move towards fingerprint recognition technology with the introduction of the iPhone 5S, Samsung introduced similar (yet by all accounts not as good) functionality when their Galaxy S5 bowed last spring. Now, though, just a year later, Samsung looks to be pointing the finger elsewhere, coming together with the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) to bring iris-scanning technology to their future mobile products. SRI, an independent non-profit research institute, already offers its award-winning Iris on the Move (IoM) biometric system via various SRI-branded products, including their IOM PassThru Drive-up Iris Recognition System (used to control vehicle entry points)...
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Samsung has been using fingerprint scanning as a security measure on several of its devices already, including its Galaxy S5 Mini, Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy Tab S, Galaxy Note 4, and Galaxy Note Edge. However, the implementation on all of those devices is one of a swipe-based sensor. With the release of its next flagship phone, the Galaxy S6, Samsung will reportedly transition to a touch-based fingerprint sensor. The name of the game here is better biometrics. As currently implemented, there just isn't enough surface area on the Home button, which oftentimes can lead to read errors. Registering a finger from multiple angles can help a great deal, though Samsung is finished...
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It appears that smartphone makers have been watching too many spy flicks, hence the sudden fascination with fingerprint scanning as a security measure. While that may seem like a fine and dandy idea on paper -- and in Hollywood -- the truth is, the biometric technology that's available for consumer handsets just isn't secure. This was again demonstrated on the Internet -- like Apple's iPhone 5S phone, the fingerprint scanner on Samsung's Galaxy S5 is susceptible to fingerprint spoofing. Never heard of the term? As long as handset makers insist on implementing hackable fingerprint scanners, it's a term you're going to hear over and over again. One way to do this is by taking a photo of a fingerprint...
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