People make use of the pattern lock in order to secure their Android devices against the unwanted access. You would be surprised by more than 40 per cent makes use of pattern lock on their smartphone and tablets a while rest makes use of either PIN codes, text passwords or doesn’t even to set up a lock system.
Once a pattern lock has been activated on a smartphone or tablet then have to draw their pattern on the on-screen grid of dots to complete the same pattern in order to gain access to their device content. When this pattern matches with the preloaded pattern as done by the users previously then device is unlocked for normal usage. The only hitch is that the system offers only five attempts to get the right combination in place before device for good. But some researchers at the Lancaster University has come up with an innovative way which helps in cracking the super secure pattern lock with awesome accuracy.
People behind this discovery
The team researchers had come together from Northwest University in China, Lancaster University as well as University of Bath together. They had shown their research where simply using the video and computer vision based algorithm software they were able to crack the Pattern lock. Researchers simply took the video of users drawing the pattern lock but without seeing the screen and the software helped in coming with the right pattern lock by simply analyzing it.
During their research more than 120 unique patterns were collected from the independent users and their software has been to crack almost 95 per cent of patterns within the five attempts. So if this software lands in the hand of the attackers then will be able to figure out the targeted individuals’ pattern with great ease and simplicity.
Complex pattern are hard to crack is a misconception
Most of the people wrongs held the notion that having complex patterns for performing the financial transaction from smartphone or tablet is a secure way. But during their research they found that the complex patterns was quite easier to crack but the shorter and simpler patterns are more secure as it takes more time to figure them with accuracy. If you wish to protect the sensitive information, then stop using complex passwords on your device.
Researchers even put forward list of countermeasures to prevent any kind of attack on your device. First make sure you fully cover the fingers while drawing the patterns. Secondly opt for dual unlocking features which include not just drawing the pattern but also entering the sentence as it happens with Swype.
If you can get your device change the screen color and brightness while drawing the pattern then it will help in confusing the recording to a great extent. The complete finding of this research will be presented at The Network and Distributed System Security Symposium 2017 which is notable conference on cybersecurity.
