Toshiba Puts Fingerprint Readers on Cell Phones 163
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."
Better security? (Score:5, Insightful)
More realistically, you'd also have to worry about somebody lifting your fingerprint from, say, the phone itself, then using that to log in. The MythBusters did a segment [youtube.com] showing how easy it is to lift somebody's fingerprint, then use that print to defeat a scanner.
This thing isn't going to increase security, it's only going to increase convenience.
Nice way to get everyone's finger print on record (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Better security? (Score:5, Insightful)
I have always felt that fingerprint scanning was ridiculous and cumbersome sci-fi, but real tests against this kind of security have shown that it is a waste of time and money. There is no replacement for properly managed and complicated password systems coupled with strong encryption. I regularly show friends and family how to create passwords that can be remembered but not guessed, and how to manage passwords that are outdated.
This reminds me of two prior
Backdoor? (Score:5, Insightful)
All of them can be "cracked" by opening the case.
Both are available for repair centers (and hackers as well).
So if someone really needs your data, he will get them, with or without your chopped finger!
Re:I'll buy one (Score:3, Insightful)
So why carry unencrypted sensitive data on them ?
Re:Better security? (Score:4, Insightful)
Easy to defeat != no effect on security. Otherwise nobody'd lock their car doors. Afterall, it only takes a hammer to get in.
Re:Better security? (Score:5, Insightful)
The last thing I need when my phone is ringing in a meeting, while driving, or at the dinner table is the horrific realization that I have forgotten to unlock the phone
On every phone I have seen, you can answer incoming calls when the phone is locked. What you can't do is make outgoing calls, or browse through the phonebook, calendar and other personal information on the phone. I don't see any reason why this would change just because the authentication technology changed from a PIN to a fingerprint.
Re:If it works as badly as Lenovo's... (Score:4, Insightful)
You bet.
What, are you just going to "do what the gun says"? Your best chance is to try to get away. Who says they're not going to kill you, if they're willing to cut your finger off. Why leave a witness alive?
The Man (Score:3, Insightful)
Fortunately for democracy in the USA, The Man is strictly limited in what He can do by the Patriot Act.
Re:Severed digits (Score:1, Insightful)
Only if the scanner can read cold severed digits!
And when the guy with the big knife finds out that it can't, do you think he is going to give you back your hand?
Re:yeah (Score:1, Insightful)
Oh dear, it appears I have blundered into a ./ wanker. I was casually and civilly commenting on your sig, and you feel the need for a snide response (quoting back "surely" with extra emphasis, mentioning the "need to correct" you when I could just as easily mention your "need" to put pretentious code in your sig, doling out sarcastic "congratulations"...)
No doubt you are making some pizza-eating, no-girlfriend-having, Linux-hacking, nerdy, esoteric reference to some special binary code unavailable to ordinary mortals, but here in the relatively real world the number one is written 1 in binary, two is written 10, three is written 11, four is written 100, five is written 101, etc. Therefore, my comment was quite reasonable and your sig was non-standard. There are people who know this, and people who don't; that makes two (10) categories of people.
Re:I'd slide it a finger allright... (Score:3, Insightful)