Fingerprint Cloning: Myth or Reality?

blog.talosintelligence.com

31 points·sohkamyung··8 comments

This reminded me of a mythbusters from years ago where they defeat a door lock fingerprint scanner. Found this (more relevant) video of touchid being defeated by fake fingerprints (2014) while trying to find it-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u4ZLGsw1zo

It sounds like a lot of effort to steal and replicate my fingerprint. Conversely I find my fingerprint a lot more usable to unlock than a biometric like a face ID.

I'm willing to trade a little convenience for security, with the caveat it sounds like a good idea to power down electronics when they're out of your sight.

How can anything be better than a pin... unless im tortured or futuristically brain hacked?

The fingerprint is not there because it's better than the PIN but because it's better than nothing, it makes people want to use such a protection. Before biometric sensors almost nobody bothered to set a PIN. Few people want to type a PIN every time they unlock the phone especially if in clear view of others. Biometrics just made security convenient enough to use.

Exactly. The fingerprint is currently an excellent system for the average person. Easy enough that most people are happy to use it and, as the article says, secure enough for the average person.

PINs can be shoulder-surfed, fingerprints are immune to that at least.

That’s why I like fingerprint sensors.

I keep my phone very close and fully turn it off when I cannot.

I am more worried about shoulder surfing than exotic black bag jobs using weird technologies

I read recently (maybe on HN) that koalas have fingerprints just like humans do. Crazy, isn't it?

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