Could using a peace sign in your selfies put your identity at risk?

A study from Japan's National Institute of Informatics (NII) claims that your fingerprints can be potentially replicated from photos and used to access your data.Using fingerprint recognition technology as an authentication option is becoming an increasingly popular and affordable option for tech companies.ESET’s senior researcher, Nick FitzGerald, adds that because of the increasing popularity and ease-of-use, there is a higher risk of fingerprint fraud being used to access people’s private information.“This resonates with the recent revelations of Prof. Isao Echizen that our fingerprints may not be safe to be seen in public in 2017,” he says.“Being able to get a clear image of someone’s fingerprints does not solve the problem of creating fake fingerprints, but this has been achieved in a variety of ways in the past when other “good enough” sources of fingerprints have been used for faking prints.”Nick explains that when using social media, criminals will often look for pieces of information about a person in order to form a complete identity profile.“To avoid identity theft, don’t use social media to post, or allow others to post, unadulterated photos of your fingers or fingerprints, passport or national identity cards, airline tickets, credit and bank cards, loyalty cards or even a winning lottery ticket,” he adds.“Other important factors in preventing identity theft on social media include: changing passwords regularly, using passphrases, limiting visible contact information and turning on the ‘approve tags’ option.”