Many people consider using a pattern lock system on Android phones secure and the best way to safeguard their device; however, according to security researchers it has been declared that Android devices using pattern lock systems can be broken in 5 attempts.

Pattern lock is a popular feature on Android phones, which is being used by millions as a way to protect their phones. Users have only five attempts before getting it right after which the device becomes locked for a short time.

Researchers from Lancaster University, Northwest University in China and the University of Bath in Germany have declared that attackers can break the pattern within 5 attempts. They can use video and computer vision algorithm software to unlock devices. 

Attackers can secretly film the owner of a phone drawing the pattern lock and can then use software to quickly track the owner’s fingertip movements. The tracking can be carried out depending on the position of the device.

“Within seconds, the algorithm produces a small number of candidate patterns to access the Android phone or tablet,” the researchers said in a university statement.

“People tend to use complex patterns for important financial transactions such as online banking and shopping because they believe it is a secure system. However, our findings suggest that using Pattern Lock to protect sensitive information could actually be very risky,” said Zheng Wang, principle investigator and co-author of the paper.

Researchers from said Universities came to this conclusion when they evaluated data collected from 120 unique patterns provided by users. The researchers managed to crack over 95 per cent of the patterns they had collected, that too within five attempts. 

“Contrary to many people’s perception that more complex patterns give better protection, this attack actually makes more complex patterns easier to crack and so they may be more secure using shorter, simpler patterns,” added lead author Guixin Ye from Northwest University.

However, if you feel that the patterns that you are currently using are fairly complex and feel confident that it cannot be broken, think again. Researchers could break all but one complex pattern within the first attempt. They even cracked 87.5 percent of median complex patterns. So beware and take a little more care when locking your phone.