Banks in the U.S. have not taken any similar countermeasures yet.
What you need to know
- Some banks in the UK have started to blacklist Galaxy S10 users from using their banking apps.
- A huge security flaw was recently discovered, which allows almost anyone’s fingerprint to unlock Galaxy S10 devices with certain silicone screen protecting cases installed.
- Samsung is aware of the issue and has promised to roll out a patch this week.
Following reports that claimed the Galaxy S10’s ultrasonic fingerprint sensor could easily be bypassed when using certain third-party screen protectors, Samsung finally acknowledged the issue last week and promised to release a patch soon. Since the security issue is yet to be fixed, some banks in the United Kingdom have started blacklisting Galaxy S10 users.
According to a few Reddit users (via PiunikaWeb) from the UK, NatWest and Nationwide Building Society have taken measures to protect their customers with a Galaxy S10. While NatWest has made its banking app unavailable for Galaxy S10 owners on the Play Store, Nationwide Building Society has disabled the fingerprint authentication feature for affected users.
As per a Reddit user from Israel, an Israeli banking institution has also disabled the fingerprint authentication option for Galaxy S10 users. So far, however, no U.S. bank has implemented any such measures.
The fingerprint recognition issue only affects Galaxy S10, S10+ , S10 5G, Note 10, and Note 10+ smartphones with certain silicone screen protecting cases. Samsung says the ultrasonic fingerprint sensors on the affected devices recognize the 3-dimensional patterns that appear on these cases as users’ fingerprints, which allows the devices to be easily unlocked by unregistered users as well. As promised by the company, it will be releasing a software update for all affected models this week, which will fix the issue entirely.
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