Hack of iPhone 5s fingerprint authentication is irrelevant

September 24, 2013

The iPhone 5s officially launched last Friday, but already a group of hackers has successfully cracked the fingerprint authentication. In spite of the hype surrounding this news, though, the hack of Touch ID idoesn’t change the fact that the fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5s is the best thing that’s happened to iPhone security so far. Spurred on by a crowdfunding effort to offer a ransom, The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) stepped up to the challenge and created a latex mold of a lifted fingerprint that allowed them to slip past the Touch ID defenses. The iPhone 5s has a fingerprint scanner built in to the home button. A blog post from the CCC gang declares, “As we have said now for more than years [sic], fingerprints should not be used to secure anything. You leave them everywhere, and it is far too easy to make fake fingers out of lifted prints.” So, once again fingerprint scanning technology has failed. Right? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2049312/hack-of-iphone-5s-fingerprint-authentication-is-irrelevant.html#tk.rss_all