Greasy fingerprints can take the shine off a new touchscreen handset, and the smudges they leave behind could also leave it open to hacking, according to researchers.
When touchscreen devices are held up to the face, they pick up oil from the skin, explained researchers from the University of Pennsylvania at the Usenix security conference. The next time the password is entered, the pattern can be traced – and photographed – in the resulting smudges.
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The researchers tested Android handsets because the Google OS uses a graphical password, with users tracing a pattern on the phone to unlock the device. In ideal lighting conditions, the researchers managed to decipher the phone’s password 92% of the time by taking photos of the screen and bumping up the contrast.Slipping a phone into a pocket isn’t enough to clean the password trail from the screen, the researchers found, so anyone wary of such an attack should take care to wipe their phone down frequently.
And if its used as a Keyboard??
REACTION MASS.
Who are these researchers?
This explains the rash of password stealing issues in Mississippi and other GOP sheeple states.
Here’s a simple fix for the iPhone [or any other phones that use a graphical keyboard, sorry Blackberry]: Move the numbers around the screen so they aren’t in the same place each time. So, the top row might be 9,3,1 this time, but the next time it’s 7, 2, 4. Same for all the other rows and you don’t have to worry about the smudges giving anything away.
@Dan
I am sure someone is planning or working on an app for that.
Yesterday I replaced a Blackberry with a basic Samsung phone. It makes very good phone calls. The battery will last almost a month on standby. People tend to buy smart phones as toys, or a device that will take control of your life. There’s nothing wrong with being off the grid a few hours.
Perfect as a condom, too.
…
What?
#3 – Mac fanbois are encouraged to use condoms with the iPhones/iWhatevers at all times. This may be the only time a Mac fanboi needs a condom.
I don’t know if the haters can read but it says the researchers used Android handsets.
I can fix this, before you give someone your phone to use wipe it on your pants. I should patent that.
Are those glans sheaths? Someone’s been browsing the SM shops too much.
Recommended by 4 out of five Proctologists.
These things are called finger cots. I used to work in the semiconductor industry and we had to wear these to keep off our hand oils and reduce static electricity damage to the ic chips. We wore them while putting them into burn in boards for testing.
is this 1 way to give the iphone the FINGER??
6- Dan M. and I had the same idea. Actually, some years ago I saw this movie where a door access plate lit up with the numbers in a different pattern each time. I think it was the first La Femme Nikita movie (not the Tv series). So the forcing the person to recall the actual access code, and not rely on a fingering pattern. I guess the smart phone makers either didn’t see that movie. Or figured it would be too confusing to 95% of their users. Screw that it made the phones more secure.