The Galaxy S5's fingerprint scanner can be tricked just like the iPhone 5S's

News
By published

Where there's a will, there's a way

Galaxy S5 fingerprint
The Galaxy S5's fingerprint sensor is not the most secure authentication

You'd think Samsung might have learned from Apple's mistakes when it comes to fingerprint technology, but you'd be wrong.

Just as the iPhone 5S's Touch ID fingerprint scanner was fooled by hackers mere days after the phone's release, the Samsung Galaxy S5's has already been tricked as well ... with the exact same method.

Just like the iPhone's sensor, the Galaxy S5's fingerprint-based security can be bypassed using a special rubber mold.

The delinquent who wants to create such a bypass key would need to first lift the phone owner's fingerprint and then stamp it onto rubber - no small feat.

Not quite Fort Knox

Does that mean there's nothing to worry about? As TechCrunch points out, you might have bigger problems if someone is going so far as to duplicate your fingertips just to get into your phone.

However, the particular implementation of the fingerprint reader in Samsung's Galaxy S5 makes this hack-around slightly more problematic, since unlike on the iPhone S5, owners of the latest Galaxy can use fingerprints to authenticate with PayPal.

So someone with access to your fingerprint could potentially also have access to your PayPal account, which is clearly not a good thing.

Of course, as has been said, either way the criminal will have access to your email accounts on your phone, but once that's done, they can do just about anything anything.

See more News about Phones
TOPICS
Michael Rougeau
Michael Rougeau

Michael Rougeau is a former freelance news writer for TechRadar. Studying at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Northeastern University, Michael has bylines at Kotaku, 1UP, G4, Complex Magazine, Digital Trends, GamesRadar, GameSpot, IFC, Animal New York, @Gamer, Inside the Magic, Comic Book Resources, Zap2It, TabTimes, GameZone, Cheat Code Central, Gameshark, Gameranx, The Industry, Debonair Mag, Kombo, and others.

Micheal also spent time as the Games Editor for Playboy.com, and was the managing editor at GameSpot before becoming an Animal Care Manager for Wags and Walks.