A few banking institutions in the UK have decided to temporarily disable support for Galaxy S10 and Note 10 devices in light of the biometric security issues that came to light last week.
The issue involves the in-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor employed by both flagship series and some third-party silicone cases that can allow unauthorized users to unlock the devices. You can read more about the issue in Samsung's official statement on the matter.
Banking institutions are temporarily halting S10/Note 10 support
Samsung is already working on a software fix that should disallow unauthorized people from unlocking Galaxy S10 or Note 10 units with their unregistered fingerprints. Until then, two UK banking institutions, namely NatWest and Nationwide Building Society, have taken measures to prevent unauthorized transfers from taking place.
Specifically, NatWest has made its mobile banking app unobtainable by Galaxy S10/Note 10 users via the Play Store. Meanwhile, NationWide Building Society kept the app available but disabled the fingerprint authentication option from the log-in screen. Likewise, tech YouTuber ASBYT shared a screenshot via Twitter a few days ago, revealing that HSBC UK disabled the fingerprint login option in its app for Galaxy S10 devices too.
👀⤵️ whoops! pic.twitter.com/YT7zT9ieMq
— ASBYT (@asbytofficial) October 19, 2019
Things should go back to normal and the fingerprint login option for these third-party banking services should return once Samsung releases a fix and enough time will have passed for most Galaxy S10/Note 10 owners to install the patch. Samsung didn't reveal any timeframes as to when we can expect the fix to be released, but we're certain that the company isn't taking this issue lightly.
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