The fingerprint sensor on Samsung's Galaxy S5 handset has been hacked less than a week after the device went on sale.
Berlin-based Security Research Labs fooled the equipment using a mould it had previously created to spoof the sensor on Apple's iPhone 5S.
The researchers said they were concerned that thieves could exploit the flaw in Samsung's device to trigger money transfers via PayPal. The payments firm played down the risk.
"While we take the findings from Security Research Labs [SRL] very seriously, we are still confident that fingerprint authentication offers an easier and more secure way to pay on mobile devices than passwords or credit cards," it said. It added that even if users were hacked it would cover their losses.A spokesman for Samsung was unable to comment.
Due to the fact that in Samsung device an explicit request of the password after N failed attempts to scan a finger isn‘t not provided, the attacker has all the chances and unlimited time to experiment your wallet. The plans of the company to introduce this type of authorization into different payment applications can make this sensor a real hole in the pocket.
