fingerprint scanner | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Can feds force you to unlock your iPhone or Android phone? ..."NO" A Northern California judge has ruled that federal authorities can't force you to unlock your smartphone using your fingerprints or other biometric features such as facial recognition—even with a warrant. The ruling came in the case of two unspecified suspects allegedly using Facebook Messenger to threaten a man with the release of an "embarrassing video" to the public if he did not hand over money. The federal authorities requested a search warrant for an Oakland residence, seeking to seize multiple devices connected to the suspects and then compel anybody on the premises at the time of their visit to unlock the devices using fingerprint, facial or iris recognition. However, Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California turned down the request, ruling the request was "overbroad and neither limited to a particular person nor ...

Google just announced its plan to introduce a new anti-spoofing feature for its Android operating system that makes its biometric authentication mechanisms more secure than ever. Biometric authentications, like the fingerprint, IRIS, or face recognition technologies, smoothen the process of unlocking devices and applications by making it notably faster and secure. Although biometric systems also have some pitfalls that are not hidden from anyone, as it has been proven multiple times in the past that most biometric scanners are vulnerable to spoofing attacks, and in most cases fooling them is quite easy. Google announced today a better model to improve biometric security, which will be available from Android P, allowing mobile app developers to integrate an enhanced mechanism within their apps to keep users' data safe. New Biometric Metrics to Identify Spoofing and Imposter Attacks Currently, the Android biometric authentication system uses two metrics—False Accept Rate (FA...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

Lenovo has recently rolled out security patches for a severe vulnerability in its Fingerprint Manager Pro software that could allow leak sensitive data stored by the users. Fingerprint Manager Pro is a utility for Microsoft Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 operating systems that allows users to log into their fingerprint-enabled Lenovo PCs using their fingers. The software could also be configured to store website credentials and authenticate site via fingerprint. In addition to fingerprint data, the software also stores users sensitive information like their Windows login credentials—all of which are encrypted using a weak cryptography algorithm. According to the company, Fingerprint Manager Pro version 8.01.86 and earlier contains a hard-coded password vulnerability, identified as CVE-2017-3762 , that made the software accessible to all users with local non-administrative access. "Sensitive data stored by Lenovo Fingerprint Manager Pro, including users' Windows logon credentials...

MasterCard has unveiled its brand new payment card that has a built-in biometric fingerprint scanner, allowing customers to authorize payments with their fingerprint, without requiring a PIN code or a signature. The company is already testing the new biometric payment cards, combined with the on-board chips, in South Africa and says it hopes to roll out the new cards to the rest of the world by the end of 2017. Don't Worry, It Still Supports PIN-based Transactions as Fallback Wait — If you think that this feature would not allow you to share your card with your child and spouse, don't worry — Mastercard has a solution for this issue as well. The company has confirmed that even if the card is configured to expect the fingerprint for authenticating a purchase, but it does still have a PIN as a fallback, in case, for some reason EMV readers fail to read fingerprint or you have yourself handed it to your child for shopping. Stores & Retailers Don't Need New Hardw...

Samsung launched its new flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus, at its Unpacked 2017 event on Wednesday in New York, with both IRIS and Facial Recognition features, making it easier for users to unlock their smartphone and signing into websites. All users need to do is simply hold their Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus in front of their eyes or their entire face, as if they were taking a selfie, in order to unlock their phone. Biometric technology – that involve person's unique identification (ID), such as Retinal, IRIS, Fingerprint or DNA – is now being integrated into more consumer devices for improved security. But, we have seen a number of hacks involving Biometric security systems in the past, which prove that fingerprint scanner and IRIS scanner  are less secure than a passcode and can be fooled by anyone, perhaps, using a photograph of the user. But how secure is the built-in sensor from Samsung to allow for facial recognition? Not so much...at least for now...

Until today, there existed such Fingerprint Biometric Readers that required your touch to authenticate yourself as an authorized person. However, the latest research shows that the future of fingerprint scanners lies in a " no-touch " activity by an individual for gaining access. Recently, NIST ( National Institute of Standards and Technology ) has funded a number of startup and companies to develop touchless Fingerprint readers. The Contactless Biometric Technology requires the person's presence, but from meters away. As the fingerprint scanners can sense and read your fingerprint information while you are standing few meters away from the scanner. Contactless Fingerprint Scanners: Fast and Time Saving The touch-free technology is such where authentication is done with a faster speed, saving time while giving importance to hygiene when compared to conventional biometric devices. Imagine a situation, where there's a long queue and to pass through biometric fingerprint...

Over a year ago I wrote an article on The Hacker News that warned of serious security concerns created by the iPhone and Android's Fingerprint authentication . Till now hackers were impersonated simply by lifting prints off the side of a phone and gaining unauthorized access to user's phone and thus data. However, security researchers have now discovered four new ways to attack Android devices to extract user fingerprints remotely without letting the user know about it. The attack, which the researchers dubbed the " Fingerprint Sensor Spying attack ," could be used by hackers to " remotely harvest fingerprints in a large scale, " Yulong Zhang, one of the researchers told ZDNet. Remotely Hacking Android Fingerprints FireEye researchers Tao Wei and Yulong Zhang presented their research in a talk titled, Fingerprints on Mobile Devices: Abusing and Leaking , at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, where they outlined new wa...

If you are one of those using cocaine, law enforcement officials may soon catch you by simply examining your fingerprints. Scientists have developed a new type of drug test that can tell whether you have taken cocaine by analyzing chemical traces left behind in your fingerprint. A team of scientists led by the University of Surrey discovered a test that makes use of the Mass spectrometry chemical analysis technique – a method proved more accurate than those currently used saliva, blood or urine samples relied on by authorities. " When someone has taken cocaine, they excrete traces of benzoylecgonine and methylecgonine as they metabolize the drug, and these chemical indicators are present in fingerprint residue ," said Dr. Melanie Bailey, the lead researcher from the University of Surrey. How is it all done? A person's fingerprint sample is treated with a mixture of methanol and water in an attempt to locate the traces. A mass spectrometer is then used to ...

You would have been holding a number of online accounts for different services, but how many of you hold a different and unique password for every single account? Probably a very few of you. The majority of people have one or two passwords that are quite simple and easy to remember and comfortably manage on their own. However, you need not worry as the Future of identification would not rely on Passwords , according to PayPal's global head of developer evangelism Jonathan Leblanc . Neither it will depend on the old Biometric identification technologies, such as Fingerprint scanners and IRIS scanners , Rather depends on something More Secure and Easier to Use … ...Embeddable, Injectable and Ingestible Devices Yes, the next generation of identification for mobile payments and other sensitive online interactions will depend on embeddable, injectable, and ingestible devices, completely replacing passwords with the identification of your body. KILL ALL PASSWORDS ...

A whole lot of things gone in the official kickoff of Mobile World Congress 2015 , but a unique phone with a curved screen on both sides of the device acquired everybody's attention. That's what unveiled by Samsung late Sunday. Samsung has officially unveiled its next-generation flagship Smartphones — Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge . This time, the company didn't just focus on the specs and features, but also on design — unique and sleek. 1. EYE-CATCHING PREMIUM DESIGN Both Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge comes with a sleek glass-and-metal body on the front and back. On one hand, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has a screen that curves around both sides with a comfortable grip, giving the phone a much smarter look. While, the Samsung Galaxy S6 has the most beautiful appearence to ever exist in the entire Samsung's S series. The new Galaxy smartphones are made of 'stronger metal' and comes with the toughest glass, Corning Gorilla...

Hackers have already bypassed Apple's fingerprint scanner using fake fingerprints, and now they have found a way to reproduce your fingerprints by using just a couple of photos of your fingers. Special Fingerprint sensors have already been used by Apple and Samsung in their smartphones for authentication purposes and in near future fingerprints sensors are believed to be the part of plenty of other locked devices that can be unlocked using fingerprints, just to add an extra layer of authentication. But, How secure are your fingerprints? A member of Europe's oldest hacker collective, the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) , claimed to have cloned a fingerprint of a Germany's federal minister of defense , Ursula von der Leyen , using pictures taken with a " standard photo camera " at a news conference. At the 31st annual Chaos Computer Conference in Hamburg Germany this weekend, biometrics researcher Starbug , whose real name is Jan Krissler , explained ...