Toshiba Puts Fingerprint Readers on Cell Phones

An anonymous reader writes "As if it wasn't enough to have fingerprint scanners on laptops, Toshiba has put them on two of its latest smart phones. The Toshiba G500 and G900 feature fingerprint scanners on the back of the handsets, allowing users to access their phone by simply sliding their finger over the scanner. This is supposed to provide a better level of security than using a code of some sort. Of course it also means that someone is more likely to chop your hand off if they desperately want your data."

gummy bears

[MillionthMonkey]

That stuff they make gummy bears out of is great for making fake fingerprints [theregister.co.uk] using someone's latent print, some crazy glue, a digital camera, Photoshop, a transparency sheet, a photo-sensitive PCB, and gummy bear gelatin. You can destroy everything but the gelatin, break into a facility that uses a fingerprint reader for security, and then eat the last bit of evidence.

Already Existing Technology?

[Poptarts]

If I'm not mistaken, this technology has already been implemented in some Japanese phones. I recall seeing it advertised on the http://www.nttdocomo.com/ [nttdocomo.com] website more than a year ago. Other features at the time included what equates to our PayPass, except that it was inside your cell phone. Another more widely used feature was the barcode scanners that would allow you to take a picture with your phone's camera of a square-shaped barcode that could be found on many advertisements and products and then find more information using the phone's web browser. Perhaps I misread the website a long time ago, but I'm pretty sure some other phone has already been released with that capability.

fingerprint recognition

[Elusive_Cure]

as i have previously mentioned in an older post, i used to participate in a reasearch at my uni for a major mobile phone company (sony ericsson) for the implementation of fingerprint recognition on cell phones and other mobile devices (PDAs,notebooks,etc). Personally i preffer the fingerprint sollution rather than the RFID one because the phone's security is up to you and not as "hollow" as RFID can be by the use of reverse engineering. It's simple, if your phone is stolen the perp needs to have your thumb or else the phone is just another piece of garbage. You cannot reverse engineer a fingerprint simply because you cannot have a clue on how the actual fingerpint is shaped, while the scanning software is something very ubiquitous and tough to be "hacked" by someone who hasn't got a clue of the scanning algorithms.

Re:I'd slide it a finger allright...

[SimonInOz]

I have one of these Toshibas. The fingerprint scan works mostly - but it doesn't work very well if you are cold (maybe it thinks you are dead ... how would Spike [a vampire - info for those foolish few who don't follow Buffy] operate one of these?)
Also the software for handling the login process is pretty sucky - it's hard to handle the mail server which tends to come up with different names, etc etc. I eventually disabled it for all except the main login, which works well enough to cope with. I have done better than most - who have given in.

On a phone, it could be a pain - but at least it has to do only one thing. Entering a six digit password (as I must on my corporate Blackberry) is *very* painful, though, and a fingerprint scan would defintely be better than that.

yeah

[DrSkwid]

*surely* there's only *one* binary

congratulations, you're number 3 (0100) not 2 (0011) or 1 (0001)

to feel the need to correct me

Re:I'd slide it a finger allright...

[Cheetahfeathers]

Driving needs too be a phone free situation, hands free phone or not. Studies on the subject have shown that hands free phones are little better for driving than a hand held unit. http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060629_cel l_phones.html [livescience.com]

Re:Better security?

[ngc3242]

As someone that works for a major fingerprint sensor manufacturer, I can say that the MythBusters did not select high quality sensors to test against. I'm getting a little tired of people who's entire pool of knowledge about fingerprint sensing is based on this one television making conclusions based on bad information. I'm not familiar with the door lock sensor specifically, but I can tell from observing it that it is an optical sensor. Whatever live tissue sensing that manufacturer claims to have is obviously not very good because the sensor was defeated with a moist picture of a fingerprint. The sensor they used on the computer I am familiar with, and it is about three years old. It is, however, based on a much better technology where flesh is live layer of skin is imaged using RF. Unfortunately, the sensor they used is not state of the art, and in fact probably may have been fooled by the circuit board they etched without going to the additional trouble of making the gel finger. Current technology is collecting more information, and is much harder to fool. Which of course implies that it isn't perfect, but it what is? The real issue for me is "is fingerprint technology increasing or decreasing security?" The narrator made a comment that beating those sensors took them 3 days. In some cases this represents an improvment in security, although not probably for a computer users password (due to brute force password attempts causing lockout..if you have the opportunity to brute force without causing a lock out, then 3 days is probably longer than the password hack would take for most user's passwords.) Think about what the finger print door lock is replacing. One of those mechanical pin locks? Brute forcing a 4 digit pin doesn't take too long, and you can drastically reduce the time required simply by observing someone use the lock and observing a digit or two. You could use a chemical that flouresces under ultraviolet light to see which pins get pressed. For a keyed lock you can just got out and buy a lock picking device. There are certainly cases where even this really bad lock is an improvement. Regarding the phone, even as strictly a convience feature the fingerprint sensor is a nice to have. The Japanese have been using sensors in phones for years, and they love them. You can think of the sensor as a little touch pad for your phone if you don't want to use it for security. You can cursor around menus and play games using the fingerprint sensor as a touch pad. Generally, stay away from sensors that only require you to touch the device and hold your finger there. Touch sensors are either optical sensors which need to have some sort of supporing live tissue sensing technology or a really old non-optical sensor. The new non-optical sensors all look like the ones on this phone. A small sliver of silicon over which you drag your finger.