Biometric security can be found in more than half of the smartphones sold worldwide in 2019, including one of the most popular security features of 2018 – a fingerprint reader.

Researchers at the University of New York have created a universal fingerprint that can be used to bypass biometric security features. For this purpose, nine datasets were used, which consisted of 5.4 thousand fingerprints collected in the NIST database, as well as 720 actual fingerprints from people recruited by the researchers.

Research team has developed a universal fingerprint using machine learning algorithms. According to the researchers such fingerprint matches that of one in five people.

Due to the fact that fingerprint readers operate on the basis of composite images of partial fingerprint scans there is a high risk of security breaches on devices operating this tech.