It’s a thumbs down for Samsung’s new phone

SAMSUNG has admitted that a flaw in its flagship mobile phone means fingerprint identity checks can be bypassed by adding a screen protector.

The South Korean tech giant said it would soon make available a software patch to fix problems with fingerprint recognition on its Galaxy S10, pictured below. One owner told how a bug on her S10 allowed it to be unlocked regardless of the biometric data registered in the device.

After buying a £2.70 gel screen protector on eBay, Lisa Neilson found her left thumbprint, which was not registered, unlocked the phone. She asked her husband to try and both his thumbs also unlocked it. And when the screen protector was added to another phone, the same thing happened.

Mrs Neilson, from Castleford, West Yorkshire, told The Sun: ‘This means that if anyone got hold of my phone they can access it and within moments could be into the financial apps and be transferring funds. It’s a real concern.

‘We called Samsung because we thought there was a fault with the phone.

‘The man in customer services took control of the phone remotely and went into all the settings and finally admitted it looked like a security breach.’

The issue can happen when patterns of some protectors that come with silicone phone cases are recognised along with fingerprints, Samsung said in a notice on its customer support app.

It is also speculated that the tiny gap between the protector and the screen could interfere with the scanning.

South Korea’s online-only KaKaobank also told customers to stop using the Galaxy S10 fingerprint recognition to log into its services until the issue was resolved.

Launched in March, Galaxy S10 phones have an in-display sensor that uses ultrasound to detect the ridges of fingerprints, which Samsung has touted as a ‘revolutionary’ biometric authentication feature.