Fingerprint Hack?

Fingerprint Hack? a reader asks…

Hi Chris, I read an article that says it’s easy to hack the fingerprint sensor on an iPhone. Do I need to be worried?

Short answer, no. I read the same article from Business Insider, and it’s either a shill piece by the maker of a fingerprint sensor in a lame attempt to bolster his own product, or (in my opinion) an irresponsible piece of pseudo-journalism that seems to be so rampant these days, intended to inflame the consumer. Needlessly.

As described the the article, fingerprint hacking is perfectly possible – in a lab or other controlled environment. The author used dental moulding putty (and 5 minutes) to create an impression of his own fingerprint. He then let that set fully, and then used Play-doh to create a ‘finger’, and (so the author says) unlocked his iPhone with it.

So that article has a lot of pictures (it’s more a photo-journalistic piece with captions), but is missing a crucial image – that of the Play-do finger actually resting on the iPhone sensor. My guess is that the actual process took a number of attempts both on the moulding part and on the sensing part in order to achieve success – the author neglects to say. I file his so-called journalistic article under “puff-piece” – and not worth any consideration.
The facts are that:

• yes, fingerprints can be faked, but it takes more than just a casual act, and generally requires the cooperation of the iPhone owner. That could be coerced, but it’s much easier to just have the owner give you the passcode.
• yes, the iPhone’s fingerprint sensor isn’t as high-resolution as other products on the market. After all, it’s for the mass-market and needs to be priced accordingly. And such resolution isn’t strictly needed for consumer use – to which market the iPhone is intended.

The iPhone’s security is more than adequate for consumer use. Your iPhone cannot be casually hacked. And perhaps not even so casually – case in point, the fracas over the FBI’s attempt to get Apple to hack into an iPhone. Apple maintains such a thing does not currently exist (and I believe that, Apple takes security very seriously). If the above hack were really do-able, don’t you think the FBI would have tried that already? Assuming they do have the remains of the San Bernardino shooters, of course. It would be a simple trip to the morgue (or an exhumation order if needed) to press a finger to the iPhone sensor. Just a tip for the FBI investigators, if they’re listening…

So don’t worry about your iPhone’s security. Your bigger concern is having a stupidly simple passcode like 1111, or worse yet, no passcode. I’m amazed at how often I see this with consumers. I recommend a good passcode – instructions on setting one in this article. And if you haven’t yet gotten round to setting up fingerprints, this article has some tips. And finally, if you’ve been having trouble using your fingerprint to unlock the iPhone, this article may help.