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posted by martyb on Thursday October 17 2019, @08:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the two-thumbs-up dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The issue was spotted by a British woman whose husband was able to unlock her phone with his thumbprint just by adding a cheap screen protector.

When the S10 was launched, in March, Samsung described the fingerprint authentication system as "revolutionary".

The scanner sends ultrasounds to detect 3D ridges of fingerprints in order to recognise users.

Samsung said it was "aware of the case of S10's malfunctioning fingerprint recognition and will soon issue a software patch".

[...] After buying a £2.70 gel screen protector on eBay, Lisa Neilson found her left thumbprint, which was not registered, could unlock the phone.

She then asked her husband to try and both his thumbs also unlocked it.

And when the screen protector was added to another relative's phone, the same thing happened.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @09:08PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @09:08PM (#908493)

    But did the try turning it off and on?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @09:48PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @09:48PM (#908522)

      Developer never thought about people putting $5 screen protectors on their phone so didn't test reader for that.

      • (Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Friday October 18 2019, @01:18AM (3 children)

        by TheGratefulNet (659) on Friday October 18 2019, @01:18AM (#908604)

        samsung: we can't afford to hire REAL qa people.

        samsung: infamous for "products last warranty+1 day" long.

        I avoid samsung like I avoid sony.

        --
        "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
        • (Score: 4, Insightful) by mth on Friday October 18 2019, @02:53AM (2 children)

          by mth (2848) on Friday October 18 2019, @02:53AM (#908649) Homepage

          Another possibility is that QA found that phones wouldn't unlock if they couldn't get a clean print scan. Then management decided that users wouldn't like that and told the developers to have the phone unlock whenever it couldn't be ruled out that the scanned print belonged to its owner.

          • (Score: 2) by driverless on Friday October 18 2019, @05:26AM (1 child)

            by driverless (4770) on Friday October 18 2019, @05:26AM (#908689)

            This. This is exactly how biometric verification is done in practice: The FA rate gets wound up until the FP rate is zero, to ensure there are no customer complaints.

  • (Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Thursday October 17 2019, @09:37PM

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Thursday October 17 2019, @09:37PM (#908515)

    There was a story posted about this the other day: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/10/16/002249 [soylentnews.org]

    But the idea of using biometrics for security is so dumb, it is worth repeating.

    At least, hopefully nobody is getting paied by Samdung for publicity.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @10:13PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @10:13PM (#908535)

    So as soon as you get your daily patch update through the Android update system, you'll be protected again.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @10:34PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @10:34PM (#908545)

      The patch will be a hole cutter for the reader.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by richtopia on Thursday October 17 2019, @10:39PM (2 children)

    by richtopia (3160) on Thursday October 17 2019, @10:39PM (#908546) Homepage Journal

    The fingerprint reader on my Moto X4 seems to have a 30% success rate on recognising my fingerprint. I would appreciate defeating this. Security be damned, it is a phone after all.

    • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday October 18 2019, @02:40AM (1 child)

      by MostCynical (2589) on Friday October 18 2019, @02:40AM (#908640) Journal

      it is a phone after all

      really? [xkcd.com]

      --
      "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @12:59PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @12:59PM (#908779)

        I love that I knew which xkcd it was before I followed the link.

        There are over 2000 of them and I still seem to know most of them.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Snotnose on Thursday October 17 2019, @11:29PM (5 children)

    by Snotnose (1623) on Thursday October 17 2019, @11:29PM (#908578)

    There is no quick start in the box. There is no LED to tell me I have a message/missed call/whatever. The USB 3 charging cord is maybe 2 feet long.

    Got the phone yesterday. Had I known even 1 of the 3 I'd have had second thoughts on buying this phone.

    Turns out the quickstart was a non-starter, the phone did everything by itself. But the lack of an LED notification (there's an option to have the phone go ape shit every 3/5/10/15 minutes if I have a msg) is not good, and the 2 ft USB cable really sucks, considering from what I read USB 3.0 comparability is on the level of "there are letters on the page, reading them is up to you. The standard calls for ink on paper".

    And the UI has changed quite a bit. Dunno if it's Samsung adding their own secret sauce, or if Android changed. Example? On the bottom of the phone the "back" and "recent apps" buttons got swapped. Found a setting to put them back. The biggie is apps. Seems my Samsung downloaded every app I had on my old phone (you know, the one the cat dunked into my hot tea a week ago). But I can't find the damned things. I can find them in settings/apps, but that just lets me disable/delete them. I cannot find the damned things anywhere.

    I can search for them, and they come right up. But I cannot find the damned things, nor put them on my home page where I'd really like them to be.

    --
    Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Friday October 18 2019, @02:43AM (2 children)

      by NotSanguine (285) <NotSanguineNO@SPAMSoylentNews.Org> on Friday October 18 2019, @02:43AM (#908642) Homepage Journal

      And the UI has changed quite a bit. Dunno if it's Samsung adding their own secret sauce, or if Android changed. Example? On the bottom of the phone the "back" and "recent apps" buttons got swapped. Found a setting to put them back. The biggie is apps. Seems my Samsung downloaded every app I had on my old phone (you know, the one the cat dunked into my hot tea a week ago). But I can't find the damned things. I can find them in settings/apps, but that just lets me disable/delete them. I cannot find the damned things anywhere.

      Depending on the version of Android, swiping up from the very bottom of the phone to the very top (if you don't go all the way up it may just display open apps), the phone may display the installed apps. This is so on my Android 9/Pie device. It's kind of annoying, but like anything else, you can get used to it.

      Again, that's dependent on your Android version, so YMMV. Good luck!

      --
      No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @01:03PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @01:03PM (#908782)

        Make a group (what used to be a folder in the computer realm), go into it, and add app (this brings up your apps in alphabetical order), I don't know how to get an app you can't find on the home screen directly if you can't find it anywhere.

        I have to use this for my games folder as adding things the other way every time I get a new game is too much effort.

        Hope this helps.

        • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday October 18 2019, @01:22PM

          by Snotnose (1623) on Friday October 18 2019, @01:22PM (#908791)

          This is what I want to do. I did finally find my app, turns out after swiping up to get the apps you can swipe left to see more apps.

          I'm slowly but surely figuring this thing out but IMHO the phone as a whole is a big step back in usability from the 3 year old phone it replaced.

          --
          Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
    • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Saturday October 19 2019, @12:26AM (1 child)

      by Snotnose (1623) on Saturday October 19 2019, @12:26AM (#909049)

      This seems to be where I bitch about my new phone.

      Was texting with a friend last night. I never got a notification when she sent a message. I had to look at the screen every minute or so.

      The pisser? Got groceries today. Every 1-2 minutes, while in the store, I got a bloopity bleep saying there was a WiFi network I could connect to.

      Guess what? When I'm talking to someone I'd really like to know when they say something. When I'm in a random location and a random WiFi wants me to connect to it, notsomuch.

      I am so fucking tired of digging though setup menus trying to figure out how to make this phone do common sense shit, I just don't know what to say.

      I don't care how good it's pictures are. I never take selfies.
      I don't care about it's battery life, I charge it every night and don't use it much during the day.
      I do care about having an SDCC card and headphone jack. Those are the only 2 criteria I looked for (outside of Android) when buying the phone. They both work great.

      I care about a blinking light when I miss a message/phone call. This phone doesn't have that. Bzzt
      I care about an incoming message when the phone is on. Bzzzt
      Used to be I could double tap the screen, then do the lock screen stuff. Now? I double tap the screen and get a screen "yeah, what", then do lock screen stuff. Extra stupid step.
      Used to be I could double tap the screen to turn the phone off. Now? Nope. Put a live phone in my pocket and hope for the best. Rather, wait for the screen to turn off, put it in my pocket, then realize the phone is still alive and is loving those nipple presses (cue Barry White)

      I'd love to know if these UI "enhancements" are Android standard, or Samsung extra sauce. Whichever, please give me back my 3 year old phone my cat knocked into my cup 'o tea.

      --
      Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
      • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Saturday October 19 2019, @12:30AM

        by Snotnose (1623) on Saturday October 19 2019, @12:30AM (#909055)

        Oh, I forgot to mention the 2 foot USB 3.0 charging cord. 2 feet. I pay $200 for a phone, and you can't spend the money to give me a decent 6 foot cord? Fuck you Samsung.

        --
        Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
  • (Score: 4, Touché) by krishnoid on Thursday October 17 2019, @11:54PM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Thursday October 17 2019, @11:54PM (#908585)

    The scanner sends ultrasounds to detect 3D ridges of fingerprints in order to recognise users.

    Ultrasound sent
    Ridges collected
    User has presented a human fingerprint -- access granted.

    Oh wait, you wanted me to identify a *specific* human's fingerprint? What the hell is someone else doing with your phone? In the meantime, I'm busy trying to extend your battery life so you can keep playing angry temple run or whatever important stuff you do on a computing device with more power and storage than a university used to have in its entirety, so stop bugging me.

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