If you have an Android device, you probably have put a Pattern Lock on your device. The Pattern Lock system allows you to create a password to protect your Android device using various patterns of your choice. New research is showing that these Pattern Lock codes are easily cracked, usually within five attempts, which is bad news for Android users worried about security.
Android Pattern Lock Able to be Cracked in Five Attempts
The Pattern Lock system is just like a PIN code that you would find on other devices. The Pattern Lock system allows you to create your own special pattern, that only you know, in order to unlock your Android device. About 40 percent of all Android devices have a Pattern Lock security on them since most Android users think this is how you can keep your Android device secured.
New research is showing though that the Pattern Lock system is really easy to crack. The really bad news is that you can crack the Pattern Lock within five attempts. Even worse news is that the more complicated patterns out there are even easier to figure out than the more simple Pattern Locks. If you do not know about the Pattern Lock system, basically you have to draw out a pattern on the Android screen, and it is nothing more like little dots. If you put in the right pattern on the Android device, then the Android device will be unlocked and you can access all of the information. You only have five attempts though to get the Pattern Lock right though before you are locked out of the Android device. That is why this new study is so important, because it is showing that your Android device can be cracked before it can lock itself.
Lancaster University researchers, as well as researchers from University of Bath, and Northwest University in China were a part of this study. These researchers showed that you can crack the Pattern Lock on Android within five attempts. They used both computer vision algorithm software and video to crack the Android Pattern Lock. This was the first time anyone has shown how vulnerable the Android Pattern Lock system is, and how easily it can be cracked.
All someone has to do is video the owner of the Android device inputting their Pattern Lock overall shape onto the Android device. You then can use software to track the movements of the fingers of that Android owner, and the software uses an algorithm to produce a few possible patterns. All of this is just based off of the video of the person inputting their Pattern Lock, and then using techniques to make educated guesses about where your fingers were on the Android screen. Most of the time, the software produces very good results, allowing someone to get into that Android device within five attempts.
It does not matter the size of the screen according to the research and the video does not need to even see the on-screen content to figure it all out. This video recording technique will work even if you are around 8 or 8.5 feet away from the Android device, and it is still reliable. Even more amazing is that if you are recording on a digital SLR camera, you are able to record the information reliably enough from 30 feet away.
For this research, the researchers used 120 different patterns that independent Android users gave them. At the end of the study, they were able to crack into 95 percent of the phones within 5 attempts. The more complex patterns ended up being easier to crack, mostly within the first attempt, which is pretty surprising. The median patterns were able to be cracked 87.5 percent of the time and the more simple patterns were cracked 60 percent of the time in the first attempt.
This is really bad news because this type of attack could leave millions of Android users vulnerable. Think about if someone put a video recorder up in the coffee shop or other place where people typically are on their Android devices. Getting into the phones would be pretty simple and then malware could be installed on these devices when the owners were distracted. The worst part too is that people, just like with passwords, often use the same patterns across multiple devices. This means that the hackers could end up getting into more than one device with this Pattern Lock.
When it comes to what you can do to prevent this stuff from happening to you, the researchers have some advice for you. You might want to cover your fingers when you draw out the pattern on your Android device, especially if you are out in public like at the mall or movies. You also want to change the screen brightness and colors if you can, so that if someone is recording, the video would be nearly impossible to use if the screen brightness changes dynamically.
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