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Samsung debuted a new fingerprint reader technology with the Galaxy S10 that uses ultrasonic waves to browse your finger. It sounds cool, certainly, but it may non be every bit secure as Samsung claimed. A new report claims a cheap screen protector can play tricks the in-display fingerprint sensor to unlock for virtually any fingerprint.

According to a report in The Sun, a British woman purchased a inexpensive screen protector on eBay for about $iv. Later applying the protector, she found her phone'due south fingerprint sensor would unlock for most anyone. It worked with her own unregistered fingerprints, also as her husband'due south fingerprints. That means someone could potentially apply a screen protector to your phone and unlock it.

It's unclear what it was about the screen protector that and then thoroughly defeated Samsung's security measures, but the company has previously noted that unofficial screen protectors could interfere with the sensor. In fact, it included a pre-installed screen protector on all versions of the Galaxy S10 with the ultrasonic sensor — the cheaper Galaxy S10e doesn't take the ultrasonic sensor.

The Galaxy S10 was non the outset phoneSEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce to transport with an in-display fingerprint sensor, but it was the first to use ultrasonic technology. Previous devices used optical sensors, which substantially act similar cameras nether the display. Google has reportedly expressed some business concern that optical sensors would be easier to fool than traditional capacitive sensors like the ones Samsung used to use.

When information technology launched the Galaxy S10, Samsung claimed the ultrasonic sensor (manufactured by Qualcomm) was both faster and more secure than optical sensors. At this point, nosotros can safely say neither of those things is true. Although, you're always giving up a picayune security for the sake of convenience with biometrics. A few months dorsum, someone managed to bypass the sensor with a 3D printed fingerprint, and we've seen many hacks of confront unlock using 3D printed heads that tin even fool Apple'southward Face ID.

Samsung says it will gyre out an update to the Galaxy S10 and S 10+ that will address the bug with the fingerprint sensor. In the meantime, South Korean bank KaKaobank has advised customers to disable fingerprint unlocking for their accounts. No one has mentioned the Galaxy Annotation 10 specifically in reference to the fingerprint scanner flaw, simply it has the same component. Presumably, it'southward as well afflicted.

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