“Thieves have mutilated victims to gain access to phones equipped with a fingerprint reader, an expert has warned,” Katie Hodge reports for The Independent.
On Tuesday, “Apple launched its iPhone 5S, which includes the Touch ID feature, an integrated sensor on the device’s home button that reads your fingerprint in order to unlock your phone,” Hodge reports. “Marc Rogers said the sensors can provide a convenient way to unlock gadgets while also boosting security.”
Hodge reports, “But they have led criminals to commit increasingly brutal robberies and even chop off phone-owners’ fingertips, the chief researcher at mobile security firm Lookout claimed. ‘Thieves in some regions have worked out that you can force a victim to unlock a secured device, and in some extreme cases have also mutilated victims in order to steal their fingerprint.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: FUDtastic!
(We were waiting for this one. We’re surprised the good ol’ amputation threat FUD took this long.)
Related articles:
Apple’s iPhone 5S with biometric identification: Big Brother’s dream? – September 11, 2013
iPhone 5s: Once again Apple leaps ahead with Touch ID fingerprint recognition; a big enterprise win for Apple – September 10, 2013
Apple reveals flagship iPhone 5s with Touch ID, the world’s first and only 64-bit smartphone – September 10, 2013
Of course: thieves also may warn you to open your iPhone accounts with a gun on your wedge…
The expert is absolutely correct. Thieves are willing to break the law. As a result, we should eliminate all security measures and allow them to commit their crimes unhindered in the name of personal safety. After all, our history demonstrates that an individual’s life is far more important that ones’ personal liberties, dignity, and values, or those of society, in general. That is why we would never fight for that in which we believe, or guard the innocent and downtrodden in this country and abroad. …end of sarcasm
The day that we give into this type of fear-mongering BS is the day that it becomes clear that this country has lost its last vestiges of honor and spirit. Besides the fact that a severed finger may not even work with the Apple/Authentec fingerprint implementation, anyone who cuts off one of my fingers (or harms a family member or friend) in the process of committing a crime had better be looking over their shoulder for the rest of his/her natural life.
Um, KingMel, I have a neighbor friend who insists upon leaving his car unlocked in his driveway in order to avoid having to worry about bad guys smashing a window to gain entry. Not joking.
I can testify that one night, just one, earlier this year, I pulled a space-out maneuver and left my car unlocked. Sure enough, one of our drug addicts was sniffing around for sources of cash, found my car unlocked (up my driveway about 100 feet from the road), got in and started rifling around. (I keep nothing but crap in my car, so he had no joy). Thankfully, my next door neighbor saw the guy in there, yelled at him and chased him away.
So what’s the better strategy? Double locked iron gate or wide open gate?
If a person is desperate enough, they’ll do what it takes. Desperation means anything can happen. Foreseeing someone else’s desperate behavior is a waste of time. But I do find that quality security is far superior to none.
I admit that there are times when a lack of security may be the more practical choice. When I had a 17 year old beater car I often left it unlocked. A quick look inside would convince anyone that there was nothing in it of any value at all besides a run-of-the-mill aftermarket radio and speakers. My reasoning was much like your neighbor’s…avoiding a smashed window while risking very little. Besides, crime in that area was low, anyway. I suppose that the preferred strategy varies with the circumstances.
I agree that desperate people are unpredictable. There are a wide range of reasons why someone might choose to commit a crime, even a violent crime. I also believe that the likelihood of being a victim of violent crime increases when society is perceived as being powerless and permissive, more concerned with personal security than justice. Law gradually gives way to the rule of fear. I ended my previous post in a rather melodramatic manner, but I stand behind the sentiment. The law is only as strong as the will of the citizens who support it.
It figures that someone was going to write about this subject as a serious matter. (o_0)
I personally find the subject to be silly and a source of dark humor. I’ve been posting tongue-in-cheek comments about how to successfully chop off a finger, storing it at 98.7ºF in an isotonic solution in order to maintain the illusion of the finger being ‘alive’. Yesterday on IRC I was joking about someone testing the ‘living finger’ verification system on the iPhone 5S scanner by chopping off their own finger and finding that it did indeed fail the ‘living finger’ test.
Getting serious: If a user wants security on their iPhone 5S, using ONLY the fingerprint scanner is NOT the way to go by any means. Clearly a nasty, unguessable password would be superior. And clearly using BOTH a password AND the fingerprint scanner TOGETHER would be FAR more successful security.
As ever:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multifactor_authentication
I really need to become a “security expert” so I can make stupid non-news worthy comments and get them published here
Just wait for the iPhone 7s with Retina verification
Interregator #2: Every minute you don’t tell us why you are here, I cut off a finger.
Emmett Fitz-Hume: Mine or yours?
Interregator #2: Yours.
Emmett Fitz-Hume: Damn! Emmett Fitz-Hume: [trying to buy time by making something up] All right! All right, I’m an American agent!
Interregator #2: And…?
Emmett Fitz-Hume: And? And… uhh… they… they sent me here t-to assassinate your Premier!
Interregator #2: [to the other interregator] I knew it! Pay up, comrade!
Interregator #1: [unimpressed] Let’s cut his fingers off anyway.
Added security, chop off you own finger and keep it at home.
It’s a iPhone, not Ft. Knox for christsakes.
Let’s hope we don’t get optical recognition
Firgerprint readers doesn’t work that way idiot “security experts” the finger need to have blood stream and be body warm in order to work, if the finger gets chopped the sensor will not read the finger.
First, may be Motorola phones may work that way because they only provide the illusion of functionality, like all android products, but fingerprint sensors in apple’s iPhone came from a real fingerprint sensor company that provided real security solutions to PCs and other devices.
Second: hey “security experts”, can you cite one case where the victim was chopped or forced to unlock the phone?
This has been the most entertaining thread to date.
I’d like to see a citation or citations that supports this assertion, the geographic locations of the occurrences, and the relative incidence of these events. I suspect that even if this is true, these are likely to be isolated events and essentially irrelevant.
stupid excuse for an article.
however, don’t forget that kids were stabbed for the first generation of Air Jordan basketball shoes. sad.
‘”Thieves in some regions have worked out that you can force a victim to unlock a secured device, and in some extreme cases have also mutilated victims in order to steal their fingerprint.’”
I get the feeling they mean in regions WORLDWIDE where:
– chopping off body parts was happening long before Touch ID
– lack of money will cause the vast majority of newly purchased iPhones to be 5C (which is the entire reason for the creation of 5C) and 4S….neither of which have Touch ID.
and not in the U.S. where:
– the ramifications for chopping off fingers far outweigh the benefits….especially considering that even our poorest have means of survival (as substandard as those means may be).
– the current primary iPhone market resides which (when considering the above) makes the title misleading
Now I’m glad that the iPhone 5S can’t read any other part of the body.