If you are one of the millions of people who use ‘Pattern Lock’ to secure your Android device, you might want to rethink your security measures.
It has now been revealed that the security feature, which is a widely used alternative to conventional pin or text options, can be cracked in as few as five attempts.
And, even more concerning, the team concluded that having a complex pattern does not make you immune from the threats either.
Researchers used a computer vision algorithm to track the fingertip movements on the mobile screen, and this experimental approach was able to break over 95% of patterns in five attempts or less.
This is the point at which the Android operating system automatically locked them out.
Not only that, but the results worryingly found that complex patterns were not able to provide a greater deterrent when using these methods of hacking, with a 97.5% success rate.
In fact there was only one pattern, out of 120, that they were unable to break in that time.
As more and more people use their handheld devices to store confidential and sensitive information, in particular financial details, the paper has called on the Android community to revisit the risks associated with using this feature.