iPhone 5S: Thieves may mutilate owners in bid to gain access to fingerprint-reading handsets, expert

Thieves have mutilated victims to gain access to phones equipped with a fingerprint reader, an expert has warned.

Yesterday, Apple launched its iPhone 5S, which includes the Touch ID feature, an integrated sensor on the device's home button that reads your fingerprint in order to unlock your phone.

Marc Rogers said the sensors can provide a convenient way to unlock gadgets while also boosting security.

But they have led criminals to commit increasingly brutal robberies and even chop off phone-owners' fingertips, the chief researcher at mobile security firm Lookout claimed.

Fraudsters have also succeeded in lifting and duplicating prints with technology that “is only going to improve with time”, he added.

“Thieves in some regions have worked out that you can force a victim to unlock a secured device, and in some extreme cases have also mutilated victims in order to steal their fingerprint.”

The hi-tech scanners are said to work best when combined with a pin code or another security feature.

“Fingerprints can be a useful addition to security but their value depends highly on the type of fingerprint reader and how it is being used - for example, the best use of a fingerprint is to provide a convenient way to unlock something in a medium to low security scenario,” Mr Rogers said.

“Unlocking a device with a fingerprint, if done right, can be much more convenient than entering a pin code multiple times a day.”

Source: www.independent.co.uk... ts-expert-warns-8808577.html

reply to post by theone88


Well that's disturbing. I think they are integrating finger prints as more evidence that you are actually typing, or using your phone for more NSA data to hold against you when or if they ever need it.

SixX18
reply to post by theone88

 

Well that's disturbing. I think they are integrating finger prints as more evidence that you are actually typing, or using your phone for more NSA data to hold against you when or if they ever need it.

Wouldn't be surprised. Or a way for the NSA to get your finger prints.

reply to post by theone88


The story didn't provide a source story of this actually happening to anyone re: one of the iPhones that came on the market yesterday.

There wasn't exactly a rash of bandits punching us in the face to get our passwords the old-fashioned way.

Maybe it's something the writer saw in a movie.

I'm not promoting the new phones. I think anything that wants your fingerprint deserves scrutiny but this news story seems to be aimed at scaring people.

reply to post by theone88


It is coming eventually to a point where everything will require a fingerprint to gain access.

Then there is going to be a serious issue, because thieves will do what it takes to steal. Desperation Breeds Courage, and if the thief is properly motivate he Will do whatever he has to do.

Let's be thankful that it is ONLY a finger.

Just Wait until a Retinal Scan is required. Then it will get Real Ugly.

Let's hope by then that we are able to Clone Replacement Parts.

www.heavy.com...

The thieves my not understand that the owner if still alive may come after them or the cops.

And the thief better hope its the cops.

And this doesn't already happen in the world's violent countries/cities.

My dad lost his ring finger in a robbery in Sao Paulo in the '80s - all because he was wearing his gold wedding band.

Just because the iPhone 5S has a built in fingerprint scanner doesn't really make thieves taking body parts a new thing, sure it may rise, but at the end of the day it was always happening and it will continue to happen biometric phone or not.

yeah, look I dont think this is going to increase the level of hand amputations.. for a iphone.

stealing an iphone, petty theft, likely to get a warning, which is why people nick em
stealing and iphone and cutting off someones right hand? is likely to land you in prison with a record, .. now imagine if the person bleeds out?

Not just that, it's a bit of a psychological jump for someone to steal property to move up to actual bodily harm. It's not as if they're just clonking the bloke on the back of the head and raiding his pockets.

If they're junkies all meth'd up to their eyeballs, then that might be another story.

reply to post by Agit8dChop


In the area where I live you would think that IPhones are gold.

There are those who would risk prison for a fix. Like I said Desperation Breeds Courage.

On the other hand, There are those that would be kind enough to tie a tourniquet and drop them off at the hospital.

reply to post by theone88
I tend not to worry too much about these hi tech stories and the envisioned future of everything being iris scanned and finger print technology.

There is one solid reason why this will never be an issue and that is electricity.

In the UK for example, we are facing a power shortage and are on a promise of diruption of power supplies in just a few years because of the reduction in power stations. These hi tech gadgets will be as much use as a chocolate fireguard and the 'old ways' of cash and signing a piece of paper to get your money out of the bank, IF the bank is even open during power cuts will be the norm again.

The stone age looms in the future and frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!

reply to post by theone88


Or the secret santa. He can do evil things.

It's on a button. not the screen.

See, already this is ridiculous... any more paranoid things to toss out? No? quick, to the undergound caves, where the poweres that be will never find us. Quick!

I think if you have something so valuable that a theif will be willing to dismember you, accessible through your damn phone, then you deserve your hands chopped off.. good grief..

ShadellacZumbrum
reply to post by theone88

 

It is coming eventually to a point where everything will require a fingerprint to gain access.

Then there is going to be a serious issue, because thieves will do what it takes to steal. Desperation Breeds Courage, and if the thief is properly motivate he Will do whatever he has to do.

Let's be thankful that it is ONLY a finger.

Just Wait until a Retinal Scan is required. Then it will get Real Ugly.

Let's hope by then that we are able to Clone Replacement Parts.

I disagree. It's coming to the point where everything will require retina scanners to do everything and they we'll have sinister yakuza mobs running around stabbing you in the EYEBALL with a pen man, a PEN I tell ya. And sticking that bloody eyeball into the retina scvanner, giggling in Japanese as they steal all your billions of currencies...

Oh man, I'm never going to use those retina scanners, the NSA can keep their hands off my eyes.

What the hell is apple thinking, don't they know how much a PEN IN THE EYE HURTS??????????

reply to post by Agit8dChop


I've seen Last Action Hero and as soon as the bad guy knew he could steal your shoes and shoot you, he was out there shooting everyone.

THey do it man, I've seen it.

THis is bad news. Apple are criminals. I mean, think of all the people without thumbs

reply to post by winofiend

reply to post by theone88


My 4 year old Toshiba laptop has a face recognition where you just have to sit in front of the web cam to log in and it scans your facial features.
No on has attempted to behead me to gain access to it as of yet..... Of course that discounts the completely irrational thought processes people seem to indulge in when you put an shiny iphone in front of them.

£600 for a phone... bargain

Apple must be right up there in the planning of the Orwellian society.
The fingerprint idea sounds more convenient, but it's not a good idea to have your fingerprint
On record in tha Apple Data Center. It makes connecting the dots on a person easier

As long as Samsung doesn't come out with a Penis scanner, I think we'll be okay.

I dont get why fingerprint scanners are still seen as some security grail. Mythbusters tore them apart in 2006 and the technology has not changed in any significant way.

If there is any gain to be had it's in Apples ability (and the NSA by proxy) to get one more piece of identifiable data.

ETA: In 2008 a woman used a piece of tape to get through a $45 million biometric security system repeatedly: link

If it reads it can be fooled. Doesnt matter if it's reading text, prints, eyeballs, DNA, or anything else. If it reads it can be fooled. Just like people.

I guess a person could avoid all of this by not owning a cell phone.

I mean, is it absolutely necessary?

From what I understand of history, man has survived several years without the use of cell phones. Granted, iPads have been around since the Victorian Era, therefore their presence is mandated and essential, but cells phones?

Did Abraham Lincoln tweet the Gettysburg Address?

Was the Magna Carta "hash-tagged"?

Back in the neolithic era, people actually "spoke" to one another, face to face. (I know, gross, right?)

Perhaps we should relearn that long-lost ability.