Dubbed as a "game-changer" despite being around on devices for years (Motorola Atrix anyone); a 'paradigm' shift in mobile payment security; and a revolution in handheld devices by any and all investors bullish of the stocks; Appl's fingerprint-scanning TouchID is everything you want it to be - apart from secure. As Der Spiegel reports [5], the well-respected German hacker group Chaos Computer Club (CCC) has thrown a wrench in the works by bypassing the smartphone's much-heralded fingerprint scanner just two days after launch. The CCC, as the clip below illustrates, successfully bypassed the biometric security system, called TouchID, using "easy everyday means." So, the question now is - will the NYPD demand everyone downgrade their phones [6]?
Via Der Spiegel, [5]
It is supposed to represent a major step forward in mobile phone security by replacing the password. But the fingerprint sensor on Apple's new iPhone 5S has already been compromised just two days after it went on sale. The German hacker organization Chaos Computer Club (CCC) says it has successfully bypassed the biometric security system, called TouchID, using "easy everyday means."
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the CCC said in a blog post [7], it wanted to demonstrate how fingerprint biometrics is "unsuitable as [an] access control method and should be avoided."
Such fingerprint technology has been around for a while -- it was included as a feature on the Motorola Atrix smartphone, launched in 2011 -- but TouchID has been reported as a significant step forward. That assertion is categorically denied by the CCC, with a hacker known as Starbug, who was responsible for bypassing the fingerprint security, saying: "In reality, Apple's sensor has just a higher resolution compared to the sensors so far. So we only needed to ramp up the resolution of our fake."
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"It is plain stupid to use something that you can't change and that you leave everywhere every day as a security token," he said, referring to fingerprints.