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A Japanese news outlet “Shankei Shimbun” published an article on 9^th January 2017. The article indicated that hackers can use peace signs in selfies to collect fingerprints of the people and can break their biometric security. It is important that the mentioned article and some other similar stories had become unreachable. A cached version of the “Shankei Shimbum” article mentioned that your captured photographs with your face and hands together on the internet can be identified using fingerprints. As we all know that a number of smart-phones are using various techniques of authentication, including fingerprint, image of face, irises of the eyes. These kinds of biometric information were being used for administrative organizations and entrance/ exit control.

Point to be noted that the original article discussed less about the dangers of identity that is being theft by fingerprints and explained more about the efforts of National Institute of Informatics. The article discussed in detail about the development in technology & potential to prevent such theft incidents in the future. When we tried to find out that authenticity about this claim, we were unable to find any evidence to demonstrate that hackers are using photographs to get fingerprints to steal identities for using in criminal activities. The professor and researcher Isao Echizen indicated that he is working with a laboratory and developing an advanced technology to secure fingerprints for any expected hacking attempt from hackers.