$16k for first person to hack iPhone 5S' fingerprint scanner

THE race to break the iPhone 5S is on. Hackers have raised $16,000 for the first person to break into the fingerprint scanner.

THE race to break the iPhone 5S is on.

The US hacking community has put together a reward of $16,000 for the first person to hack the new iPhone 5S' fingerprint scanner. Apple introduced the new feature as a way to better secure the iPhone. Given that every single person possesses a completely unique fingerprint, the iPhone 5S can be locked down to your specific security credentials. Two security experts Nick Depetrillo and Robert David Graham set up a website IsTouchIDHackedYet.com which - as its name implies - tells people if the phones fingerprint scanner has been hacked yet. "Hackers had used gummy bears to lift fingerprint sensors a while back," Mr Graham told ABC News (US) . "We are arguing that it is a lot harder. We are all offering money, betting that it is going to be hard. We are betting that no one tomorrow is going to grab a gummy bear and get through tomorrow."' And no, lopped off fingers cannot be used to access the phone. That theory has already been disproven. But apparently a cat's paw print will do just fine. One user, Natasha Lomas, decided to test out whether her feline companion could unlock the phone with her paw print.   So she synced the phone to recognise the cat's paws. "The registration process took a little bit longer than it would a human's fingerprint," said Darrel Etherington, a writer for TechCrunch who said Lomas came up with the idea after he told her he had to write a review of the phone. "It seemed like there wasn't as much tolerance, like if the paws were at a different angle than when the cat first registered," said Etherington. But eventually, the cat's paw succesfully unlocked the phone. Etherington said he succesfully unlocked the phone using the underside of his forearm and the heel of his palm. "So long as it has a recognizable pattern," he said. "It has to be alive, but really it's any type of exposed skin."