Are We Making It Easy For Phone Hackers?

Android lock patterns are “laughably easy” to crack, a study found.

16:27 26 August 2015

Android phones are easier to hack because owners use patterns that are “laughably easy” to crack, a recent study has found.

 

The study was conducted by a Norwegian researcher who spent more than a year analysing the password gestures used on Android phones. Instead of numbers, it users drawing patterns across nine circles. Marte Løge found that 44per cent of the patterns started in the top left corner and that many users used just four nodes, making it easier for hackers to crack into a phone. 

The study also found that women tended to pick more obvious patterns than men with young users choosing the safest, most complex pass codes.

 

Løge said: "Humans are predictable. We're seeing the same aspects used when creating a pattern locks [as are used in] pin codes and alphanumeric passwords."

 

"It was a really fun thing to see that people use the same type of strategy for remembering a pattern as a password," Løge added.

 

"You see the same type of behavior."

 

Eric Zeman, a mobile technology expert agrees with Løge’s observations. He said: "By now we all know that using "password" or "123456" as your password is about as dumb and lazy as it gets," he wrote.

 

"Those are easily guessed and are hardly a speed bump to hackers.

 

"Pattern locks have the potential to be very secure, but people are lazy with patterns too."