Zhang Chao, Associate Professor of Institute for Network Science and Cyberspace at Tsinghua University. (Photo: CGTN)

A  report cautioning against posing peace sign in photos has triggered heated discussions on China's social media platforms. Chinese security experts warned the popular pose might reveal one's fingerprints which could be used by cyber criminals.

Zhang Wei, vice-director of the Shanghai Information Security Trade Association, said people's fingerprints could be 100 percent recovered if the peace-sign-photo was taken within 1.5 meters.

"It's possible if the photo is taken from a right angle with enough clarity," Zhang Chao, Associate Professor of Institute for Network Science and Cyberspace at Tsinghua University, told CGTN, adding that attackers can create a hand model based on the fingerprints.

According to Zhang, biometric recognition such as fingerprint recognition and facial recognition are less secure than traditional authentication methods like passcode because they are easy to leak.

"But there are no severe consequences," Zhang said. "When it comes to fingerprint recognition, experts will not entirely rely on it solely."

To ensure safety, experts like Zhang will combine fingerprint recognition with other factors such as passcode, image pattern recognition and USBKey.

New technologies bring new threats

Similar to biometric recognition, new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI,) 5G and internet of things (IoT) are also posing threats to cybersecurity.

Zhang, who focuses on AI security, said AI development is still in its early stages, and could be fooled easily. 

"Attackers could make minor changes to a picture and make the AI believe that it is something else," Zhang said.

A criminal could be let in to an important government facility, and severe traffic accidents could be caused if attackers fooled AI-powered systems successfully.

As 5G becomes inevitable, concerns have been raised by both experts and civilians.

"5G itself doesn't bring much safety issue because its underlying technology is similar to its predecessor," Zhang claimed.

However, new network applications such as autonomous driving and IoT that are powered by 5G might bring new threats to cybersecurity.

Zhang said cybersecurity experts across the world are working on perfecting AI modules to make them undeceivable, and enterprises such as smart home companies are ramping up their cybersecurity defenses. 

Cybersecurity threats with Chinese characteristics

As a developing country, China is a latecomer when it comes to information technology. 

"Research on cybersecurity has only been around for a few years," Zhang told CGTN, admitting there is a big gap between China and developed countries in terms of cybersecurity.

As a big country, China has countless government sectors, schools, enterprises and research facilities. Many of those have just been equipped with internet, which means they have lower awareness of cybersecurity.

"One of the obvious results is that China is under cyber attacks every day," Zhang said.

Another major cybersecurity challenge in China relates to telecom fraud.

By stealing personal information like ID number, age and address, attackers could conduct targeted attacks on specific people. 

"Amount of money involved in this kind of cases is usually very high," said Zhang.

According to a report released on Monday regarding Chinese netizens' satisfaction with cybersecurity in 2019, 51.25 percent of people considered the cyber environment safe, 12.91 percent higher than last year.

Organizations like China's National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team (CNCERT) have been putting efforts to improve the country' s cybersecurity level.

"There are different divisions focusing on certain cybersecurity issues," said Zhang. "For example, some departments will conduct annual evaluation on mobile applications by downloading them and checking if they contain malware that could leak users' information."

Drills have also been conducted among key governmental agencies and companies to train their defensive abilities when they are under cyber-attacks.