Is Microsoft on to something?

[ronaldme]

I've been following this back-and-forth with interest. I always did agree with your view, and now I'm more convinced! Those videos reveal nothing helpful. Who knows what went on before going in front of the camera?

While it is technically possible to lift a fingerprint and use it to unlock a phone, it is very difficult; beyond the realm of most people's capabilities. If someone went to the bother to do it to my phone, they would be disappointed with the return!

The idea is not how easy or hard is to fake the fingerprint, the idea is that the fingerprint scanner is not secure, you can use a nipple and the fingerprint scanner will accept it as a fingerprint.

If your phone is stolen, the thief will try everything to break the security.

 

[tgp]

The idea is not how easy or hard is to fake the fingerprint, the idea is that the fingerprint scanner is not secure, you can use a nipple and the fingerprint scanner will accept it as a fingerprint.

If your phone is stolen, the thief will try everything to break the security.

It doesn't matter so much what you use. You have it; the thief doesn't. It would probably take a lot more work to crack someone's phone than it would be worth for the average smartphone, especially since the now mandatory kill switches greatly reduce a stolen phone's value.

Even so, is this a problem in the real world? I haven't heard of it. I think this is one of those things that looks worse on paper than it is in real life.

A 4 digit PIN isn't terribly secure for that matter. There are likely plenty of users who normally do not use security because of the inconvenience, but will use a fingerprint reader because it is very user friendly.

 

[ronaldme]

It doesn't matter so much what you use. You have it; the thief doesn't. It would probably take a lot more work to crack someone's phone than it would be worth for the average smartphone, especially since the now mandatory kill switches greatly reduce a stolen phone's value.

Even so, is this a problem in the real world? I haven't heard of it. I think this is one of those things that looks worse on paper than it is in real life.

A 4 digit PIN isn't terribly secure for that matter. There are likely plenty of users who normally do not use security because of the inconvenience, but will use a fingerprint reader because it is very user friendly.

I'm focusing on the thread subject.

 

[Krystianpants]

ROTFL. Yes, but I want to see a video accomplishes that. Never mind, I just got the latest James Bond flick. lol.

Why don't you search? I saw it on a blog embedded somewhere a while back. There's videos showing how to make them. You can use cheap materials. It takes a bit of skill yes. The scenario is if someone steals your phone, they may likely deal with people who can unlock them and do it enough to be skillful. If you lose it, it could end up in the wrong hands. This isn't some james bond skill. Even forensics use this sort of stuff, it's not super secret agent skill. Fact is in those cases, having your iris scanning phone stolen will at least give you the relief that it won't be unlocked and likely will need to be formatted sparring your data.

 

[Krystianpants]

It doesn't matter so much what you use. You have it; the thief doesn't. It would probably take a lot more work to crack someone's phone than it would be worth for the average smartphone, especially since the now mandatory kill switches greatly reduce a stolen phone's value.

Even so, is this a problem in the real world? I haven't heard of it. I think this is one of those things that looks worse on paper than it is in real life.

A 4 digit PIN isn't terribly secure for that matter. There are likely plenty of users who normally do not use security because of the inconvenience, but will use a fingerprint reader because it is very user friendly.

A 4 digit pin can be more secure. The phone will only allow so many attempts. And a good number that has no specific dates related to you can go far. Now the windows phone asks on first boot. And that's more secure because less people will be likely to see you entering the pin. With iphone the pin is there but they will likely know about specific hacks for it. Remember these people stealing these are usually doing it for a reason. Random people won't just steal your phone in a typical case. And so these guys know about all the security guards that iphone implements, etc.. My friends iphone 6 was stolen and of course the thief turned it off right away so it won't get disabled. Maybe once they open it up they may have ways to resell in markets like China. If phones were useless after getting stolen then iphones wouldn't be such a hot commodity to steal.

 

[Rupert Holmes]

I have long said the parts are worth more than the phone.

 

[Jazmac]

Why don't you search? I saw it on a blog embedded somewhere a while back. There's videos showing how to make them. You can use cheap materials. It takes a bit of skill yes. The scenario is if someone steals your phone, they may likely deal with people who can unlock them and do it enough to be skillful. If you lose it, it could end up in the wrong hands. This isn't some james bond skill. Even forensics use this sort of stuff, it's not super secret agent skill. Fact is in those cases, having your iris scanning phone stolen will at least give you the relief that it won't be unlocked and likely will need to be formatted sparring your data.

Thanks, we'll pick this up in a thread about cyber-security.

 

[Christopher Kendalls]

Its the future. I think Microsoft needed something to differentiate themselves from the iPhone, since fingerprint scanning was such a hit on those devices. But I'm sure it is something Microsoft Research may have been working on well into the last decade, if not earlier, and the costs have finally come down to where it can be offered on a smartphone. Give it another few years you'll probably see it on budget phones as well.

Does this mean that we can use the technology to pay for our purchases at the grocery store? Hard to tell. But I did hear that JP Chase said that they will have kiosks available in their locations soon, perhaps by the end of the year. Diebold wants to get rid of ATM cards altogether. If that happens and companies like Diebold and NCR are spearheading the technology you won't even need a cell phone to use the technology.

 

[ronaldme]

Search for "iris scanner" on youtube and you will get a lot of "next lg/samsung/sony/etc will use iris scanner"

 

[Christopher Kendalls]

Perhaps. But I'm not saying that the OEMs that develop for Android aren't there with their research and development. I realize that a lot of these technologies, including Continuum, had some origins or were already available in some shape or form on Android. But I don't think of Android when I think of WP. I think of the iPhone, which it appears to have a lot more in common with, with respect to how the technology is "***** proof" and what you can and cannot do with the device. Android is wide open, and you're free to do with the device as you wish, as ill advised as whatever you're attempting to do may be. Windows Phone is not that at all; we just recently got an official file manager, and we still do not have third party keyboards. With WP, you don't have to root, etc. That was the point that I was trying to make.