Posted on 05/01/2016 7:17:18 AM PDT by BenLurkin
s the world watched the FBI spar with Apple this winter in an attempt to hack into a San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, federal officials were quietly waging a different encryption battle in a Los Angeles courtroom.
There, authorities obtained a search warrant compelling the girlfriend of an alleged Armenian gang member to press her finger against an iPhone that had been seized from a Glendale home. The phone contained Apple's fingerprint identification system for unlocking, and prosecutors wanted access to the data inside it.
It marked a rare time that prosecutors have demanded a person provide a fingerprint to open a computer, but experts expect such cases to become more common as cracking digital security becomes a larger part of law enforcement work.
...
The issue partly revolves around the prevailing legal stance toward fingerprints.
Law enforcement routinely obtains search warrants to examine property or monitor telecommunications, even swab inside an inmate's mouth for DNA. But fingerprints have long remained in the class of evidence that doesn't require a warrant, along with providing handwriting samples or standing in a lineup. Courts have categorized fingerprints as "real or physical evidence" sourced from the body, unlike communications or knowledge, which cannot be compelled without violating the 5th Amendment.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
That's not up to us.
They should just chop the finger off, like they (the bad guys) do on TV shows.
and that is why I have no use for biometrics for security access. It is not secure from the government compelling you to provide access, whereas something that you know, can only be compelled via torture, and even then, there are a few that can still resist.
Not without a warrant!
I’m sick of liberal goons in Government. The answer is HELL NO.
Ummmm, no. In fact, hell no. Next question??
All the secure stuff is on my PC's, which use three levels of high-quality encryption.
Yes, if the NSA wanted to know what's on my computer, they could probably crack it in a year or two, but by then, the password to my checking account and a couple of dozen torrented TV shows are probably not my biggest problem!
My friend was at dinner with a group of friends. They were talking about phone security. He said why would anybody ever use their thumbprint to access their phone, all your wife has to do is wait until you are asleep and put your thumb on the phone.
They all immediately changed their way to access their phones.
It must be silly season.
THAT horse has not only left the barn, but there is no signs of the barn left!
If you have a drivers' license, a passport or any other "official" document, Big Brother already has our fingerprints.
I teach, and in order to become a teacher in Texas you have to submit a full set of fingerprints. Same if you get a CHL, so they have two copies of mine.
A dead finger won’t work for the iPhone print reader.
Does the FBI know?
I’m grudgingly holding to the “rag doll” principle for this question: if investigators can get what they need from your uncooperative (though unresisting) arrested body by simple physical manipulation, it’s legal (albeit very close to the line). They can’t take anything from you (DNA) nor compel you to communicate (right to remain silent), but can photograph, measure, etc. If they can take your fingerprints, they can feed ‘em to a computer and see if it will respond usefully.
In computer security, there is a difference between keys and identification. Fingerprints are identification. Passwords and encryption codes are keys. Both are needed for proper security; don’t rely on just one.
They should. If they don’t, they’ll find out.
“A dead finger won’t work for the iPhone print reader.”
Why not?
I don't know how accurate fingerprint readers can be, but I know that the ones in our office require you to put down your finger perfectly square on the reader and that you remain absolutely still for the time it takes for the reader to work.
If these are the same, I don't see any way that they could ever get an accurate reading if you just twitch your finger every time they place it on the reader. Even holding your fingers down in place, they would have a tough time to keep you from voiding any potential read on the fingerprint. Smashing your finger on the reader causes the fingerprint to squash and also become unreadable ... take it from me, I've done it by mistake and voided the read.
A dead finger won’t work for the iPhone print reader.
***********
What does it fail on? temp? Blood flow? either way I’m not using biometrics...
“The government wants...”
Words that hearken back to Stalin.
It operates on sensing some dynamic element of the sub surface fatty tissues, not the actual surface print.
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