The idiocy of using fingerprints as a passwords on new MBP

4 points

10 years ago

There is already well known precedent of law enforcement officers forcing phone users to unlock their phones with their fingerprint. In the story below for example, the feds walked into a building, and demanded everyone to unlock their phones with their fingerprint. See: http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/10/16/doj-demands-mass-fingerprint-seizure-to-open-iphones/#32df81898d9d

The problem is that your fingerprint is not a secret. In the history of device security, we have always used something to identify you, and something secret to authenticate. But, with the latest generation of phones and computers, we are now using only something to identify you. This is why law enforcement officers can legally force you to unlock your device with a fingerprint.

Using a fingerprint (or even facial recognition) would be a great improvement to security IF you still had to enter your password, but that is not the route that the device makers have gone.

Even if you encrypt your entire disk, if you are only using a fingerprint or a facial scan to authenticate, YOUR DATA IS NOT SECURE. And it's not just your data... Every person who has interacted with you is also at risk of having their conversations with you disclosed.

It is baffling that things have gone this route. To see this feature on the new MBP blows my mind! How are people happy about this?