Android users leaving themselves open to fingerprint hacks

Android phone users are leaving themselves susceptible to password hacks – simply by committing the all too common crime of leaving a few fingerprints behind.

A recent study (published by the University of Pennsylvania) has found that users have been inadvertently revealing their key-lock passwords by leaving oily fingerprints behind, showing exactly which keys have been pressed on the nine point pattern-drawing system.

By using different camera orientations and lighting settings, both partial and complete password patterns can be retrieved from Android phones without much difficulty. This is the case even if the patterns have been disrupted by general usage or contact from clothing.

So the next time someone hacks your phone to send creepy texts to random people in your contact list (such as your boss, prospective girlfriend/boyfriend or dear old mum), don’t say we didn’t warn you.