7-year-old Hacks Apple Touch -- Security Today

7-year-old Hacks Apple Touch

By Ginger Hill
Dec 03, 2014

As soon as a new model of smartphone hits the market, criminals have already or are figuring out how to hack it. The same holds true for Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint identification system, only this system wasn’t hacked by a notorious cybercriminal or thief. Nope! It was hacked by a 7-year-old boy! And, it was done without knowing any code!

As Matthew Green, a professor who teaches computer security and cryptology at at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), slept soundly, his 7-year-old son, Harrison, snuck into his dad's room, grabbed his dad’s hand and pressed his finger against the Touch ID scanner on his iPhone6. Yep, that was all it took for this youngster to gain access to his dad’s iPhone!

“This is a really serious problem,” said Professor Green. “In a situation where you’re under arrest, biometrics is not very good.”

Of course, little Harrison didn’t want to exploit his dad or compromise any of his critical information. This “hack” was all about playing Minecraft and Angry Birds.

(Andrey_Popov / Shutterstock.com)

About the Author

Ginger Hill is Group Social Media Manager.

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