Comments on: Fingerprints… http://blog.shirleywalsh.com/fingerprints-486.html Sharing my packet of Life with ya... Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:09:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Vladimir http://blog.shirleywalsh.com/fingerprints-486.html/comment-page-1#comment-151 Vladimir Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:36:02 +0000 http://blog.shirleywalsh.com/?p=486#comment-151 You are absolutely right -- a better way to authenticate (this is the technical term) ourselves to systems and certify our identity is needed. Fingerprints are one type of biometric identifiers, very widely used although not the most accurate ones, but there are also others: iris, palm vein patterns, face (!), voice, etc. Many challenges are still to be solved, but the technologies using biometrics have been steadily improving and many devices already come with biometric sensors on them (including cell phones). The major problem of the biometrics (any type) is that the biometric information is not secret. By now, it has been assumed that fingerprints are secret, but with the wide adoption of biometric systems, it will become increasingly difficult to keep the fingerprint images secret. Faces are already public (just check at Facebook:-)). So the fingerprint images will be stored in computers, which computers will get hacked, and the images will get stolen in the same way as the credit cards numbers are stolen today. And here comes the big problem: you can cancel your credit card and a new number will replace it, but you cannot cancel your fingerprint (or face or iris) and have a new one... Here come the people (myself included) who are trying to solve this. FYI: CCC publishes fingerprints of Wolfgang Schäuble, the German Home Secretary http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/105728 You are absolutely right — a better way to authenticate (this is the technical term) ourselves to systems and certify our identity is needed. Fingerprints are one type of biometric identifiers, very widely used although not the most accurate ones, but there are also others: iris, palm vein patterns, face (!), voice, etc. Many challenges are still to be solved, but the technologies using biometrics have been steadily improving and many devices already come with biometric sensors on them (including cell phones).

The major problem of the biometrics (any type) is that the biometric information is not secret. By now, it has been assumed that fingerprints are secret, but with the wide adoption of biometric systems, it will become increasingly difficult to keep the fingerprint images secret. Faces are already public (just check at Facebook:-)). So the fingerprint images will be stored in computers, which computers will get hacked, and the images will get stolen in the same way as the credit cards numbers are stolen today. And here comes the big problem: you can cancel your credit card and a new number will replace it, but you cannot cancel your fingerprint (or face or iris) and have a new one… Here come the people (myself included) who are trying to solve this.

FYI:
CCC publishes fingerprints of Wolfgang Schäuble, the German Home Secretary
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/105728

]]> By: Jerrip http://blog.shirleywalsh.com/fingerprints-486.html/comment-page-1#comment-46 Jerrip Thu, 14 May 2009 22:20:51 +0000 http://blog.shirleywalsh.com/?p=486#comment-46 "Maybe our personal computers will be fitted with chips that read our fingerprints too and allow us to log in that way. " - they already are. “Maybe our personal computers will be fitted with chips that read our fingerprints too and allow us to log in that way. ” – they already are.

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