Hackers Show How Easy It Is to Steal Your Identity from Selfies
Like snapping selfies? Here’s something to consider next time you mug for the camera: hackers.
Germany’s biggest hacker group, the Chaos Computer Club, demonstrated just how easy it is for someone to break through the four most common types of computer protection.
Speaking to an enthusiastic audience at a cybersecurity conference in Hamburg late last month, the keynote speaker (identified only as “Starbug” and sporting a black hoodie with the word “terrorist” emblazoned across the front) showed how unsecured computers and cellphones really are, despite seeming protected with passwords, lock codes, fingerprint scanners, facial recognition systems or even iris scanners.
As Starbug demonstrated, a hacker doesn’t even have to be in the same room as the victim to swipe their information.
He showed how photographs posted online can be used to recreate the fingerprints of an unsuspecting victim. Once captured, prints can be recreated and used to unlock an iPhone with a thumbprint scanner, a computer with a fingerprint lock system, or even a gun safe that relies on a fingerprint to gain access.
Fingerprints can be grabbed from virtually anywhere, he said, quipping: “If you ever want to write a ransom letter…wear a pair of gloves.”
Starbug was the winner of a contest to break through Apple’s security system. A group called “Is Touch ID Hacked Yet?” put out the challenge, and paid the winner in bitcoins.
See his video of the demonstration:
