A team of researchers has managed to unlock a murder victim’s smartphone using a 2D image of his fingerprint. The group was forced to utilize this method after an attempt to gain access to the phone using a 3D-printed reconstruction of the man’s finger failed to get the job done.
An image of the victim’s fingerprints was made available to the researchers by the police, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough detail to unlock the device. An image enhancement algorithm was used to fill in any broken lines present in the image, according to a report from The Verge.
The image was then printed onto conductive paper, at which point it was used successfully to unlock the Samsung Galaxy S6 belonging to the victim. There was no passcode set up on the phone, so the research team were able to try alternate methods without the threat of being locked out.
Smartphones read fingerprints by forming small electrical circuits with the ridges of your fingerprint, which prompted the use of conductive paper. This detail also forced the team to utilize a $600,000 machine to coat the ultimately unused 3D-printed reconstruction with conductive metal.
Michigan State University professor Anil Jain lead the team of researchers, and he has some concerns about the level of security offered by a fingerprint scanner. In February, Jain co-authored a report that suggested that all it takes to spoof this kind of protection is a high-quality image of the fingerprint, an inkjet printer and some conductive paper.
“Hopefully the phone companies are watching this and they will make fingerprint devices more robust against such simple attacks,” said Jain when he was interviewed by NPR. Given the widespread use fingerprint recognition as a security measure, it’s definitely worrisome to see how easily it can be sidestepped.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.