Tag: mobile security

Mobile security questioned regarding Apple Touch ID fingerprint scanner

| September 27, 2013

Hackers are saying that the technology is “broken” and that it is possible to bypass.

Although Apple is saying that its Touch ID fingerprint recognition system is providing consumers with the iPhone 5S with a “very high level” of mobile security, hackers are claiming that they have been able to break into that system as of a day after the initial launch of the device.

These claims have been made by the Chaos Computer Club in Germany, among other hackers.

The Chaos Computer Club released a statement that claimed that it “successfully bypassed the biometric security of Apple’s Touch ID using easy everyday means.” This could have serious mobile security implications for the device manufacture which has been heavily hyping this particular feature for the safety that it provides its users.

The hackers have claimed that it was easy enough to bypass the fingerprint based mobile security barrier.

Mobile Security - fingerprint scannerThey accomplished this by taking a photograph of a fingerprint that was left behind by a user on a glass surface. They were then able to create an artificial “finger” that featured the user’s fingerprint so that they would be able to unlock the phone’s mobile security device. Even after these claims, Apple continues to maintain that the Touch ID system is a secure one.

On Apple’s own official website, it has explained that there is a one in 50,000 chance that two individual fingerprints will be adequately similar for the technology to think that they are the same. It feels that this mobile security level remains very high.

According to the SRLabs chief scientist, Karsten Nohl “It would have been incredible if Apple had managed to do something the rest of the biometrics industry has failed to achieve after decades of trying, so I’m not surprised it was hacked after just one day.” The head scientist at the think tank also stated, while speaking to the BBC, that “Claiming this system offers a high level of security is just ridiculous.”

At the same time, Apple has not been claiming that the Touch ID is a complete replacement for the more traditional mobile security technique that uses a password. Instead, it is designed to allow users to unlock their devices more conveniently.

Gadgets from Apple define a new mobile tech mainstream

| September 18, 2013

The fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5S will make biometrics commonplace in a single device release.

Although there has been as much negative press as there has been positive regarding the release of the latest smartphone gadgets from Apple, the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C, it is the new feature of the fingerprint scanner in the 5S that is gaining the most attention from the media.

This single new feature could change the way we think about how everyday technology functions.

The fingerprint scanner is being marketed as this gadget’s security upgrade, but it could actually represent a great deal more. It is catapulting biometrics into the mainstream, so that they will be incorporated into the workplace, events, real world shopping, and mobile commerce. Until just recently, this sector had been receiving attention from only the fringe of the industry.

Now, in the release of a single gadget, the use of biometrics is about to become commonplace.

Gadgets - Apple iPhone 5S Fingerpring ScannerThe executives at Apple explained that the Touch ID technology embedded in these gadgets as a part of the iPhone 5S home button will only be providing users with fingerprint access to the device itself as well as the manufacturer’s own online stores, analysts have said that this release is going to have a much broader effect.

This type of technology, referred to as biometrics, will likely become central to wider adoption in other gadgets and devices, say analysts. According to Alan Goode, the managing director of the U.K. based Goode Intelligence research consultancy, “It really propels biometrics into the mainstream.”

The senior vice president of design at Apple, Jonathan Ive, has also dropped hints as to the future of the technology that is available in this latest of gadgets from the tech giant. He stated that “Touch ID defines the next step of how you use your iPhone,” and that “making something as important as security so effortless and so simple.”

Though there has already been criticism to the way that the fingerprint technology works in these latest gadgets, with complaints such as the issue of sweat interfering with its function, it is still giving Apple an edge for the moment, as it is the only one with this technology on the current market. That edge may, however, be short lived, as other manufacturers, such as Microsoft, are already building fingerprint recognition into their own latest releases. In Microsoft’s case, that tech is being worked into the latest Windows 8 update. It is expected that Android won’t be long to follow.