Many leading smartphone makers have added biometric finger scans as a new feature in their phones. The idea is to make your phone as secure as possible by using your fingerprint, which is said to be unique to individuals, as your screen lock. It sounds good and markets well, but is it really as secure as you have been led to believe?

Students at Michigan State University decided to test the claim of security by performing an interesting science experiment. They literally took 15 minutes to break the fingerprint security lock on Samsung and Huawei phones. Here’s what they did.

They lifted the fingerprint of the individual whose phone it was. Then they used a standard inkjet printer to print a fingerprint out on paper with a special ink which they had created for the purpose. Once the printout was available they simple scanned it with the locked phone and viola, it was unlocked.

The phone manufacturing companies may say that someone would still have to lift your finger print for the process to work, but given the kind of gadgets that are available and the fact that no one really wears gloves all the time, how difficult could that possibly be? So don’t rely only on the fingerprint lock of your phone, add more security features.