Microsoft has improved its Windows 10 'Hello' biometric authentication to ensure that facial recognition cannot be spoofed by a photo.The move comes after report from German security firm SySS GmBH that showed how attackers can use the simplest method to hack the biometrics system: simply printing out a low-resolution photo of the owner of the device. “To circumvent Windows Hello Face Authentication on numerous Windows 10 versions in an unauthorised way, an attacker only needs a special paper printout on the face of an authorized person,” said the researchers.To get into a device using the Hello system, someone only needs to print out a coloured photo (around 340×340 pixels) of the device's owner. Researchers were able to get into several devices through this method.”With paper printouts of this type, it is possible to successfully bypass Windows Hello Face Authentication in different versions of Windows 10 with different hardware and software configurations,” they said.”Windows 10 face recognition is an integral part of the Windows Biometric Framework (WBF), which is a core component of the Windows 10 operating system.”Windows Hello Face Authentication uses information from a special near-infrared camera (near-IR camera) and, depending on the Windows 10 version used, additional information from an RGB camera for user authentication.”

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