Monday, September 23, 2013

iPhone 5S Fingerprint scanner hacked

Am I surprised? Not really. Fingerprint scanning isn't new technology, and the knowledge of how to get around them has been around for a while. To be honest I'm kind of surprised that it took this long.

The reality is Fingerprint scanners have a few problems.

  1. You only have 10 fingers meaning you only have 10 possible options when choosing a "passkey", unless you decide to use your toes... or nipples. Let's hope you don't have a enterprise security policy that requires you to regularly change your "passkey" without repeats, because you could eventually run out...
  2. You tend to leave you fingerprints all over the place... I mean people sometimes leave their passwords written in weird places, but think of everything you touch during the day with your hands... 
  3. I don't know about you, but my finger prints are all over my screen. IT'S A TOUCH SCREEN. I mean seriously could I make it any easier?
So bottom line this "security feature", was never really about security. It was about the illusion of security. People like the idea of someone not being able to look at their phone, but most people are too lazy to set up a pin to enter after the "Swipe to Unlock". I mean entering a password? I just want to take a picture of my lunch for Instagram!


No comments:

Post a Comment