As you may know, Samsung have claimed their new phone to be revolutionary. With amazing camera and “revolutionary” fingerprint system. But there is one major flaw. What’s this? The Samsung S10 fingerprint scanner lets anyone unlock the phone with their fingerprint.
Obviously, this is a serious security issue. Samsung have responded to this by promising to issue a software patch to solve this problem.
Who Found the Issue First?
The issue was first reported by The Sun magazine. After putting on a screen protector she got on Ebay, a woman had set up her Samsung S10 to unlock with the fingerprint on her right thumb. But then used her left thumb, which ended up unlocking the smartphone. After she found out this, she tried out her husbands thumbs – both of which unlocked the phone.
The woman said that anyone could get into financial apps to transfer funds – which is obviously a legitimate concern. She also said that she contacted Samsung because she thought that the phone may’ve been faulty. The employee on the customer service call admitted that it looked like a security breach.
To stir up a bit of controversy, Mike Murphy on Twitter has tried to re-create the effect where the smartphone lets in anyone but has seemed to fail. So that begs the question, why couldn’t he and a few others re-create the effect when many other people can?
Hopefully Samsung will send the software patch will come soon and make sure that no-one elses phone is at the risk of letting unknown people in. In the meantime, I would suggest that anybody with the phone will stop using the Samsung S10 fingerprint scanner for a while until the issue has been sorted. If you’re too stubborn to live without the scanner, you can try living without a screen protector. At least you’ll know what it means to live on the edge!
Update: Samsung has Sent a Fix
Samsung has sent an update to the Samsung Galaxy S10s around the globe – fixing the biometric issues they have had.
The company also issued an apology to the customers through their customer support app and told the smartphone users to update their biometric authentication to the latest software version. The root of the issue? Samsung has said that the issue can occur when patterns that come on some silicon cases are recognised along with fingerprints. Therefore, whoever presses down on the screen protector will automatically unlock the phone.
The Bank of China has also stopped accepting payments made through fingerprints from certain Samsung devices. As well as this, Alipay’s fingerprint payment verification function app has been temporarily suspended. Obviously, both of these have been removed temporarily because of the major security risk the entire situation puts people at.
So people, what are you waiting for! Go and UPDATE!!!
