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Hackers can easily steal your details just by the tilt of phone

Hackers can ‘steal your pin numbers and passwords’ just by the tilt of a phone

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DQC Bureau
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Malicious websites and apps are able to spy on your activity using motion sensors built into smartphones and tablets. When checking your bank details or signing into iTunes, hackers could be stealing all your personal data through motion sensors.

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Researchers were able to guess a password just by tracking the movement of a device. And it only took five attempts to get 100% accuracy.

Teenage girl using her smart phone while on the train.

Today we cant deny this fact that phones have the ability to read your face or store fingerprint scans and we often worry about our privacy when we connect to public Wi-Fi networks.

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However, we would have never thought motion sensors and orientations sensors can also be used to hack our phones. Most applications do not require you to grant permission for using your device's motion or orientation sensors. This, in turn, provides hackers with a framework for them to “listen in” on your sensor data. According to the study, hackers can not only guess your password but also where your fingers are placed on the screen and how you use them to interact with the device.

According to reports hackers were able to crack four digit pins with 70% accuracy and that too on their first attempt. They were able to crack passwords with 100% accuracy by the fifth attempt. The reason why this is important is because most smartphones allow users at least five attempts to feed in their password correctly before they lock themselves.

Since every movement such as scrolling, long-pressing and tapping can be tracked due to ergonomic limitations – one tends to hold the device in a unique way. These sensors can be monitored and can be used to determine where exactly you are tapping on your screen or what you are typing on the virtual keyboard.

Nobody has been able to offer a solution so far. However, this can be temporarily deal with by making apps ask for permissions to use these sensors.

hackers steal pin-numbers passwords tilt-of-a-phone
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