Before the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c were released, a contest called ‘is touch ID hacked yet?’ was announced. As the title suggests, this involved numerous hackers from all over attempting to crack into iPhone 5s’s new security system. The iPhone maker said that there is a one in 50,000 chance of two individual fingerprints being similar and the technology offers “a very high level of security”. Carrying out these tests would allow hackers to determine just how secure the devices are.

This fingerprint technology was introduced by Apple on the iPhone 5s so as to improve the security of the device and to make it more secure. In addition, they wanted to make it easier for the authorised user to access their information and buy applications.

The idea is to spur users into securing their devices using the simplistic swipe method in comparison to regularly inputting multiple character passwords. Most people prefer to avoid this because it is perceived as an inconvenience.

The organiser of ‘is touch ID hacked yet?’ Nick Depetrillo, gained £13,000 in pledges to offer as prizes to the first hackers who can present video evidence that they successfully beat Apple’s biometric security. http://istouchidhackedyet.com/ states that the first person who is able to “reliably, and repeatedly break into an iPhone 5s” will be rewarded.

Arturas Rosenbacher, founder of venture capital firm I/O Capital Partners and entrepreneur decided to up the contest stakes by increasing the cash prize by another £10,000.

Germany’s Chaos Computer Club (CCC) stated to have “successfully bypassed the biometric security of Apple’s Touch ID using easy everyday means”. As the first group to have overcome this system, they were rewarded with the crowd funded prize of alcohol, Bitcoins and an iPhone 5C in addition to cash.

CCC claimed that they were able to accomplish this task by taking photos of a fingerprint left on a glass surface and then creating a fake finger which would be able to unlock the phone.

Hackers often compete to see who is able to bypass the security on new devices. In the case of Apple’s iPhone 5s, the cash prize raises the incentive to achieve this.

Apple has not yet addressed the ability of hackers lifting individual prints and making fake fingers, which the CCC claim to have achieved.

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