Researchers Created Fake 'Master' Fingerprints to Unlock Smartphones

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6 points·pedro84··3 comments

When did we get the idea that biometrics were such a great idea? We literally wear our new "passwords" on our fingerprints all the time. We also leave fingerprints around, basically meaning we simply rely on people being too lazy to find a way to replicate them.

Secondly, you can't change biometrics. That's bad. Your retinae, fingerprints, etc. can't be reset if stolen.

Finally, there's a lot more legal precedent for passwords. As it stands, passwords are protected as "persons and papers", while fingerprints etc. are not.

Biometrics seem like an attempt to try to compensate for people's reluctance to make good, unique passwords. This is the cynic's opinion, but I don't think we can ever compensate completely for the human fallibility of any system.

To be fair, they're more secure in the average case where someone leaves their phone on the bus and someone else picks it up. Joe Shmo the phone thief isn't likely to know how to lift fingerprints (e.g. off the phone itself), but they can unlock an unsecured phone.

If that's the difference we're talking about, fingerprint security is way better than no security and has about the same convenience.

I don't use the fingerprint sensor on my phone because I prefer better security through a relatively long password. However, I'd much prefer that someone use something than nothing. I think patterns are a reasonable alternative, as are PINs.

Thinking from the perspective of Joe Shmo, you're correct. However, biometrics are being pushed on enterprise security and other higher-value targets.

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