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To: Swordmaker

Exact terms escape me, but there’s a difference between credentials (known info others are unlikely to supply) vs passcodes (secrets which only the authorized should know). Fingerprints are considered the former a la speed bumps for security, not impenetrable secrets a la 1024 bit RSA keys.


3 posted on 03/08/2016 8:20:05 PM PST by ctdonath2 (History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. - Ike)
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To: ctdonath2
Exact terms escape me, but there’s a difference between credentials (known info others are unlikely to supply) vs passcodes (secrets which only the authorized should know). Fingerprints are considered the former a la speed bumps for security, not impenetrable secrets a la 1024 bit RSA keys.

Samsung and the other Android makers were so desperate to have an iPhone work alike they rushed one out. It only scans actual fingerprints. Apple doesn't even scan fingerprints but the subcutaneous fat ridges underneath the fingerprints so a mere copy of photo of a fingerprint cannot work. It is much more sophisticated than a finger"print" scanner. It also somehow requires the finger to be living.

When the iPhone 5S first came out, there were several hackers who claimed they had successfully "hacked" Apple's fingerprint scanners using their own iPhones and either latex copies of their fingers or photocopies. However, it turned out that every single one of them could NOT duplicate the opening of the iPhone if someone else but them wore the copy. When they researched further it was found that the iPhone was reading their fingers THROUGH their attempted FAKE. Put it on someone else's finger and it wouldn't read the right ridges and valleys under the fake and under the other persons skin.

The only system that would work was one that ALSO read the subcutaneous valleys and ridges of fat under the epidermis of the finger, then make a rubberized fake finger that matched those subcutaneous patterns, put fake skin with similar capacitance as a real human finger to make it read like a living finger and THEN, maybe one out of ten tries it might open the iPhone. Very iffy.

6 posted on 03/08/2016 9:31:52 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue..)
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