We have seen fingerprint reader, face recognition authentication for a while. Smartphone manufacturers have been rumoring about this and Apple finally introduces it. Apple announced their new IPhone 5s with fingerprint reader yesterday. It’s a cool factor to have fingerprint instead of the password or pattern based authentication. Apple claims that fingerprint is stored local on the A7 chip and can only be accessed by the print sensor itself. How safe is “safe” for Apple? In the past Apple has proven to have weak software security implementation. So that raises the question about privacy and security.
As per Apple (data), the sensor:
uses advanced capacative touch to take, in essence, a high-resolution image of your fingerprint from the sub-epidermal layers of your skin. It then intelligently analyses this information with a remarkable degree of detail and precision.
Recently we have seen governments getting into people lives using the digital world in big way. So the concerns will be how much of what Apple claims is a reality because they are known to secretly respond to government requests without user concern.
Why fingerprint reader on smartphone is a concern for smartphone Vs laptops ?
World is going towards mobile and data transfers are being handy. Desktops percentage have been reducing exponentially and smartphones have been a media for communications in the recent years. So if hackers manage to get in or steal the stored data then it’s a matter of time how it will be used. IN few years from now its possible that fingerprint authentication will be used as single form of login and that can be a huge risk if fingerprint data is compromised.
