So you have been thinking its all cool to put your two fingers open in a sign of peace as pose so snap yourself. Scientists say otherwise; thieves can actually steal your fingerprints from your selfies.
That is according to researchers in Japan who have discovered that fingerprints can easily be copied and recreated from photographs taken up to 3 meters (10 feet) away. They indicated that the peace sign is a wonderfully convenient way of displaying your digits.
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Speaking to a local paper Sankei Shimbun, one of those involved in the research, Professor Isao Echizen, a security and digital media researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Informatics (NII), said “Just by casually making a peace sign in front of a camera, fingerprints can become widely available.”
The consequences of this may be dire as with selfies people get even closer to the camera, and more than ever, the biomertic technology is used on hand held devices.
Also, the professor noted that with the quality of smartphone cameras getting extremely good and sophisticated, and people very eager to share photos of themselves across social media, thieves can lift the tiniest details of your fingerprint just by going on the Internet, without even the need for particularly advanced technology. Basically, you could be wearing your bank details on your sleeve.
While this is a long shot as for this thievery to work, the culprit would have to find a sharp image of your fingertips, build a mold of said fingerprints, and then gain physical access to your smartphone, it is not impossible.
As he stressed on being careful, Echizen told Sankei Shimbun: “If someone hacks your password, you can change it, but you’re pretty much stuck with the fingerprints you were born with.”
