Friday, September 20, 2013

Cat Paw Breaches Through iPhone 5S Fingerprint Scanner

So now that the iPhone 5S has been out for a few days or so, this is when the fun starts. All the bugs will begin to show themselves. One such bug that many did not expect to see is actually affecting one of the biggest features of the iPhone 5S: the fingerprint scanner. Now the issue with this feature that is now being reported is not that it doesn't unlock due to sweater fingers, but that it opens and accesses your phone with things other than your fingerprint. Everything from your palm, to your forearm, and now even a cat's paw will do the trick.

This is not shaping up to be a good look for Apple's new iPhone, and albeit that we should expect bugs in the new feature, I don't believe that anyone was expecting an animal to be able to access their phone.  With so many people upgrading their phones and getting the new iPhone, it can be very risky to consumers with jobs that require a level of security. The fact that this feature was looked at as one the the main reasons to buy the new 5S is only giving this phone a bad look in terms of security. This news has now become so important that now even hackers are getting involved with this as well.

With the hackers offering a fairly handsome reward, it can only be assumed that the information on how to hack the new scanner properly would be used for malicious intent. The reward has been increasing steadily as well, so now hackers will have a little more incentive. The act of "lifting" someone's fingerprint seems to be the best way to go about tricking the new scanning feature. Supposedly there a few different ways to go about doing this, so now it begs the question, how secure is your new iPhone 5S really?

Now that these issues are starting to arise with the new Apple device, one can only hope that they are working around the clock to try and figure out the issue and resolve it. The main concern with that is that we, as the consumer, can't be sure whether the issue is in the hardware or the software. The only real failsafe involving the scanner is that a numeric passcode is required if the phone is left untouched for at least 48 hours. It hasn't been long that the new 5S has been out and with issues like this already occurring, it doesn't look good for Apple right now.

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