Raising your hand in a V-sign to take a photo can have your fingerprints stolen
The V-sign pose - which can also be interpreted as a pair of scissors or a victory symbol - can be used by criminals to steal fingerprints.
China's cybersecurity experts have warned that modern powerful zoom functions can reveal the photographer's fingerprints, giving criminals the opportunity to steal them for profit, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.
According to Mr. Zhang Wei - Deputy Director of Shanghai Information Security Association, holding up two fingers when taking a photo will reveal perfect fingerprints if appearing close enough to the lens.
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Holding up two fingers to take a photo can make you an easy target for cybercriminals. Photo: Shutterstock |
Speaking at an event to raise awareness of national cybersecurity in Shanghai on September 15, Mr Zhang said current image magnification and artificial intelligence technologies meant it was possible to extract enough detail to create a perfect copy of a person's fingerprint.
According to a post on the online news site Thepaper.cn, Mr. Zhang advised that photos of the V-sign taken closer than 3 meters risk being exploited and should not be posted on the Internet.
“Photos taken within 1.5 meters can accurately recover 100% of people's fingerprints, while photos taken from a distance of 1.5 to 3 meters can reveal 50% of fingerprints,” said Zhang Wei.
Based on the information in the photo, criminals can fake fingerprints and then use them to log into applications that require fingerprint recognition such as smart doors and payment systems.
Feng Jianjiang, a professor of fingerprint recognition at the Department of Automation at Tsinghua University, said that in theory, a photo could show a fingerprint clearly enough to be copied and forged, but he was not sure what a safe distance was for taking a photo.
“Some people’s fingerprints cannot be captured (at any distance) due to the characteristics of their skin. However, the fingerprint image can be clearly visible if the shooting distance, angle, focus and lighting are all ideal,” Feng further explained.
He suggests users check the visibility by zooming in on the fingerprint location in a photo before posting it to social media.