China’s scissor-hand selfie-takers warned of cybersecurity threat

A popular hand gesture adopted by China’s online community in uploaded pictures could be used by criminals to steal people’s fingerprints, Chinese cybersecurity experts have warned.

The “scissor hand” pose – similar to the peace sign or “V” for victory– could reveal a perfect fingerprint if held close enough to the camera, according to Zhang Wei, vice-director of the Shanghai Information Security Trade Association.

Speaking at an event promoting a national cybersecurity awareness campaign in Shanghai on Sunday, Zhang said photo magnifying and artificial intelligence-enhancing technologies meant it was possible to extract enough detail to make a perfect copy of the sensitive information.

According to a report by online news portal Thepaper.cn, Zhang’s advice was that scissor-hand pictures taken closer than three metres (10 feet) could be vulnerable and should not be published on the internet.

“A scissor-hand picture taken within 1.5 metres (four feet 11 inches) can be used to restore 100 per cent of people’s fingerprints, while pictures taken about 1.5-3 metres away can turn out 50 per cent of the fingerprints,” he said.

Based on the information extracted from the pictures, criminals could make models of the prints which could then be used to register at fingerprint-based identity recognition checks, such as door access and payment systems, Zhang said.