So, I know that we live in an ever changing world, especially when it comes to technology; but, as I sat reading an article on BBC regarding the elimination of passwords in favour of biometric recognition when logging into a computer, a bank account, or your phone I began to shake my head.
Essentially the new iPhone has created technology that will allow users to purchase from iTunes with the touch of a finger. There is a touch sensor in the home button, which will read your finger print making it only accessible by the fingerprints it acknowledges.
A red flag immediately went up in my mind because, if you've seen any spy movie, watched CSI, or read a Sherlock Holmes book, we leave fingerprints absolutely everywhere. Literally anything we touch leaves a fingerprint and I know movies as well as TV shows are not real life, but if it is even half as easy to lift a print as they would make it seem then this is probably one of the worst possible security features possible.
People today are all about technology, but really is the new technology always better? I know there are hackers in the world that are able to crack any security code, but would a fingerprint just make it even easier to hack? Not only could they gain access if they crack the series of 0s and 1s that computer code uses, other people with less computer skill could still gain access to anything because that disposable cup from Tim Horton's you just threw away has your prints on it.
It seems ridiculous to me to think that a fingerprint ID is safer than a random password using numbers, letters, and symbols. Especially when a quick Google search, "how to lift fingerprints," comes up with about 1,670,000 results including how to lift fingerprints with super glue and tape. A related search was even so kind to suggest for me to search for, "how to lift fingerprints with household items."
This actually led me to multiple pages talking about how to fool fingerprint scanners through the use of gummy bears, available at any corner store with candy.
Other biometric technologies that exist include the analysis of DNA, facial features, eye scans, voice patterns, and even ear patterns. Though some of these seem harder to lift than a finger print I would be wary of a voice pattern password considering most people have a built in recorder in their phones today.
When doing interviews, I personally tend to pull out my phone, click a few buttons, and just have a visit with whoever I'm talking to.
So between voice patterns and fingerprints, I would choose old technology. If worried about someone seeing your password or being able to guess it then why not make all passwords as long as people want them to be?
In the case of PIN numbers at an ATM, well they're four digits long and I would imagine that might be easy to memorize; but, a computer password can be much longer. You can use letters, numbers, and symbols making it hard for the user to remember let alone someone trying to see what it is.
I know you're not supposed to tell your passwords to anyone, but I was away from the internet during registration for university once. So, I trusted my friend to sign me up to my classes. I gave her my password and subsequent information.
Now with patterns and such it's quite easy to remember things. For example I saw one of my friends log onto their computer in my first year university, so the fall of 2007, and I can still remember what it was. When I gave my password to my friend over the phone, the next day she had already forgotten it.
Now I suppose fingerprint passwords would make it more difficult to share your password with people, it would prevent children from buying things off of iTunes on their parent's accounts, while it also seems high tech and futuristic but, is it really?
