You might recall that a German group of hackers have claimed to have hacked Apple’s fingerprint authentication system called Touch ID. This has made many question how secure the iPhone 5S is. Before I get to how you can protect yourself from this, let us discuss the hack so you understand what this hacker group did. In reality, all they’ve done is use a method to clone fingerprints that has been used in the past with other biometric devices, which is as follows:
- The fingerprint of the enrolled user is photographed with 2400 dpi resolution.
- The image is then cleaned up, inverted and laser printed with 1200 dpi onto transparent sheet with a thick toner setting.
- Finally, pink latex milk or white wood glue is smeared into the pattern created by the toner onto the transparent sheet.
- After it cures, the thin latex sheet is lifted from the sheet, breathed on to make it a tiny bit moist and then placed onto the sensor to unlock the phone.
It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie, but this method has been around for as long as biometrics have been around. This would likely be reserved for someone who has the technical ability and the equipment to pull something like this off and that includes getting your fingerprint and getting physical access to the phone for a long enough period of time to do this. The reality is that your average iPhone thief isn’t going to have access to your fingerprints, nor are they going to have the equipment and technical know-how to pull this off. Thus the iPhone that they just stole is a rather expensive paperweight. So from my standpoint, I would not invest a whole lot of time worrying about this hack.
But let’s say you did want to worry about it. How would you protect yourself seeing as you can change a password but you can’t change fingerprints? Your tendency when using a finger for this purpose is to use your index finger. Consider using your pinkie finger instead. Since it’s not commonly used for biometric purposes, it means it is less likely to be cloned. That would be the best thing that I would suggest to minimize whatever risk exists. But beyond that, there’s not really all that much that you need to do.
Is Touch ID perfect? No. There is not a biometric system, or any sort of security system for that matter that is perfect. However, I strongly believe that it will deter thieves from stealing these phones because if they cannot flip it for cash quickly, there’s no point in them stealing it. It’s a deterrent and a very good one that iPhone 5S users should not be afraid to leverage.
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This entry was posted on September 24, 2013 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, iOS 7, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Should iPhone 5S Owners Worry About The Fingerprint “Hack”?
You might recall that a German group of hackers have claimed to have hacked Apple’s fingerprint authentication system called Touch ID. This has made many question how secure the iPhone 5S is. Before I get to how you can protect yourself from this, let us discuss the hack so you understand what this hacker group did. In reality, all they’ve done is use a method to clone fingerprints that has been used in the past with other biometric devices, which is as follows:
It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie, but this method has been around for as long as biometrics have been around. This would likely be reserved for someone who has the technical ability and the equipment to pull something like this off and that includes getting your fingerprint and getting physical access to the phone for a long enough period of time to do this. The reality is that your average iPhone thief isn’t going to have access to your fingerprints, nor are they going to have the equipment and technical know-how to pull this off. Thus the iPhone that they just stole is a rather expensive paperweight. So from my standpoint, I would not invest a whole lot of time worrying about this hack.
But let’s say you did want to worry about it. How would you protect yourself seeing as you can change a password but you can’t change fingerprints? Your tendency when using a finger for this purpose is to use your index finger. Consider using your pinkie finger instead. Since it’s not commonly used for biometric purposes, it means it is less likely to be cloned. That would be the best thing that I would suggest to minimize whatever risk exists. But beyond that, there’s not really all that much that you need to do.
Is Touch ID perfect? No. There is not a biometric system, or any sort of security system for that matter that is perfect. However, I strongly believe that it will deter thieves from stealing these phones because if they cannot flip it for cash quickly, there’s no point in them stealing it. It’s a deterrent and a very good one that iPhone 5S users should not be afraid to leverage.
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This entry was posted on September 24, 2013 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, iOS 7, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.