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I wonder if biometric authentication is inherently flawed.
If a digital description of my thumb print is stored somewhere it is really no different than a password with the exception that if the thumb print definition is stolen I don't have a way to change my thumb print.
The nightmare scenario is someone stealing a thumb but the reality is any hacker interested in account access is going to be stealing the millions of digitized thumb prints stored in databases all over the world.
Also, unlike the password in my head I'm leaving thumb prints all over the place all day long. What is the implication of this sort of system in regard to people who've been finger printed because of an arrest? Are those paper records now a security hole? Could someone pull a finger painting out of the trash that you did in the 5th grade and have your password for your corporate account?
I don't know the answers to these questions which is why I'm asking.
On the surface, this looks to be a dead end in regard to security.
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Hence why I've been denouncing fingerprint authentication as insane since the 1st halfbaked scanners started showing up in laptops a half dozenish years ago.
Iris scanners at least don't have you leaving your identity laying around everywhere you go; even if the UX challenges mean they'll probably never become mainstream...
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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The silly part is that leaving your password all over the place via prints, as real of an exposure as that is, fails to be the biggest exposure. Consider credit cards: I leave my credit card with wait staff, cashiers, and other service personal every week. I've yet to be exposed by these people who actually handle my card. My exposure comes because of compromised databases - where the crooks don't have access to the physical card.
I don't see where thumb prints alleviate this vulnerability.
The crook isn't after your thumb any more than he's after your physical credit card.
In fact, either of those items missing causes them to become worthless as they'll be reported missing.
The crook want the sequence of bytes - the electronic representation of those items.
I have to think security experts are aware of this - to keep pushing biometrics they must have a solution to this problem of which I'm unaware.
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One advantage (of probably many) of biometric authentification is that you do not need to remember passwords.
I'd rather be phishing!
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That seems to be a very tiny advantage compared to the all the disadvantages.
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Trouble is, you can apply that logic to "having one single password for all systems" and making it "password"... 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I've followed the government advice, my password is now "3 short words" 
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Now, my first guess would be "GinAndTonic"...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I vote GinAndBacon.
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
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GinBaconClistctrl?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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GinBaconParis - I'm in!
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
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MehGerbil wrote:
I wonder if biometric authentication is inherently flawed. |
Yes, it is. I've been scanning my finger to log on to my laptop since I bought it two years ago, and do you think there is any way I can recall my password?
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly. - Oscar Wilde
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Is biometric authentication a different thing than "password" authentication ?
One verify that you are who you say you are (biometric); and the other one verify that you have access to a system (password)?
As "cool" as it looks in movies, stealing one person eye or thumb to trick a retinal scan or thumb scan it is not really practical or easily feasible.
I'd rather be phishing!
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I recently answered a query on a LinkedIn discussion. It was simple enough about how/why/when to override hashCode and equals in Java.
I gave a simple answer - if you override either you should override both and that if the equality of objects is based on the state, then you should consider overriding them even if you don't intend to use the methods.
Well roger me senseless with a walnut branch! There really are some fuped people out there. I have read that ALL classes MUST reimplement the methods, if you don't care then just use a random number for the hash code, you can override one and not the other and even that it doesn't really matter.
I must stop doing this, it hurts my brain.
[adendum]
Latest answer was about you can only build meaningful hash codes from String values within the object. FFS.
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On the bright side this frustrating experience gives you an excuse to 'drown your sorrows'.
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Excuse? Why would I need one of those?
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You don't have to offer the wife a reason when you slip on your hat and overcoat and head out towards the pub?
Perhaps you've an arrangement like I have where I go to the pub to pick up the wife. 
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Tonight we're out at a reception at a posh London hotel. All I have to do is turn up suitably dressed and it's freebies all the way until the 8th 'stop it, you're embarrassing me' and then she'll drag me home.
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How is taking advantage of free booze an embarrassment to the wife?
Is she not a frugal person?
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excuse, isn't that called today is a day that ends in y?
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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 That's pretty bad.
On another hand (one of mine, not yours), I had to wrap a class from Microsoft (.net) yesterday because it doesn't overload those and it is sealed. 
I think this week is the week of struggling with needlessly sealed classes.
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Yup, seen that a few times as well.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: I think this week is the week of struggling with needlessly sealed classes.
I'm looking forward to someone forking .NET and removing the sealed keyword on a bunch of classes.
Marc
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And adding virtual to pretty much everything that doesn't have it.
Personally, I'd be tempted to add a Dispose method to Object as well. 
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Wow. That's scary, and sadly continues to confirm my belief in the stupidity of most programmers.
Marc
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