3D printed heads can now unlock phones

3D printers are rapidly gaining momentum in the manufacturing industry. Several subject matter experts concur that 3D printers may very well put several manufacturers out of business and render numerous workers jobless. From churning out parts for automobiles, appliance components and furniture, 3D printing has found successful applications in the real estate industry as well. 3D printed building sections have been used in several buildings, saving time and money on the overall construction. However, the fact that 3D printers could compromise data security does come as a shock to most security experts.

Smartphones are highly personalized and people store all kinds of sensitive information on them. Passwords have traditionally been used as a safety mechanism to secure a person’s personal information. But typed passwords are soon becoming a thing of the past and are being replaced by biometric scanning, wherein a person’s fingerprints and face become their phone’s passwords. Exploiting this feature, a person’s 3D printed head was used to try and unlock his phone, and voila, it worked. The artificial head was tried against a few android phones and the iPhone X. Only the iPhone defended against the attempt.

This could begin a whole new era of phone hacking and pose serious security issues. One of the major concerns is the hackers using 3d printed heads of their victims. Another major concern is the law. The laws to protect citizens ‘data do not protect against facial recognition, and this can easily be used by the authorities to get into people’s phones. It is unclear as to how the corporations would respond to this newfound threat.