Researchers used Lego to get past a new kind of smartphone security
One way to secure your mobile phone or tablet is something called "gesture analysis." The device learns how you use the phone by recording your swipes and taps. It can then build up a profile of you in order to verify you using the way you use your phone.
But Motherboard reports that a study carried out by researchers in the US found that it's relatively easy to fake a user's swipes using a robot built with Lego.
Researchers created a fake finger and attached it to a device that played back other people's swipes. The mechanical finger then replicated those swipes on the device. Sure enough, the device regularly thought that the machine was a real user.
One method that researchers used resulted in the machine being counted as a real user 90% of the time. That's a pretty good success rate.
NOW WATCH: Clever ways to reuse your old iPod
- 2 states where home prices are falling because there are too many houses and not enough buyers
- US buys 81 Soviet-era combat aircraft from Russia's ally costing on average less than $20,000 each, report says
- A couple accidentally shipped their cat in an Amazon return package. It arrived safely 6 days later, hundreds of miles away.
- 9 health benefits of drinking sugarcane juice in summer
- 10 benefits of incorporating almond oil into your daily diet
- From heart health to detoxification: 10 reasons to eat beetroot
- Why did a NASA spacecraft suddenly start talking gibberish after more than 45 years of operation? What fixed it?
- ICICI Bank shares climb nearly 5% after Q4 earnings; mcap soars by ₹36,555.4 crore