“A recent report claims that fingerprint sensors that are used in Android smartphones are not as secure as TouchID [sic] fingerprint sensor used in the recent iPhones,” Sam Mobile reports.
“The new research by Yulong Zhang & Tao Wei, which was presented at the Black Hat USA 2015 conference in Las Vegas [last] week, demonstrated new ways to attack Android devices and steal fingerprints from them,” Sam Mobile reports. “Out of the four attacking methods outlined by the researchers from FireEye, one in particular – fingerprint sensor spying attack – could remotely steal fingerprints on a large scale.”
Sam Mobile reports, “This attack was confirmed on the Galaxy S5 as well as the HTC One Max. Apparently, smartphone makers don’t fully lock down fingerprint sensors. Furthermore, sensors in some devices seem to be guarded by ‘system’ privilege instead of ‘root”, making the job easier for hackers.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Okay, who’s shocked that a half-assed, rush-job, knockoff feature bolted onto a half-assed, rush-job, knockoff operating system is insecure as opposed to Apple’s revolutionary Touch ID and iOS?
SEE ALSO:
Security journalist: Goodbye, Android, hello Apple iPhone! – July 29, 2015
Simple, secure Apple Pay propels mobile payments – January 26, 2015
Prior to Steve Jobs unveiling of Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android didn’t support touchscreen input – April 14, 2014
Before iPhone, Google’s plan was a Java button phone, Android docs reveal – April 14, 2014
How Google reacted when Steve Jobs revealed the revolutionary iPhone – December 19, 2013
Apple to ITC: Android started at Apple while Andy Rubin worked for us – September 2, 2011
[Attribution: The Loop. Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]