infoTECH Feature

October 14, 2015

Dear Fingerprint Scanner, We Could Be Really Great Together

By Special Guest
Bill Carey, VP of Marketing at Siber Systems

Dear Fingerprint Scanner,

It has been a rough few months for my password friends and I. Intel (News - Alert) has promised to eliminate us, Ashley Madison couldn’t protect us, and those human beings still stink at creating us. “123456”, “password” and “12345” were the three most popular passwords of 2014. It’s embarrassing.

Even if humans made more complex passwords, even if websites stopped storing us in plain text, and even if encryption became widespread, we’d still be in trouble. The truth is, Fingerprint Scanner, you are one sexy animal analyzer. For most of those humans, pressing a thumb on you is the closest they will ever get to being a secret agent.

Fingerprint Scanner, you’re just so user-friendly. People hate memorizing me. They hate having to enter me a second or third time because they can’t remember where the @ and ! go. They’re sick of hitting the caps lock instead of the shift key and having to rewrite me again and again. They’re fed up with deciphering the funky letters in those “Are you a real person?” boxes.

 In a world that conflates instant gratification with innovation, you win every time, darling.

Shutterstock

For ten years now, all those tech CEOs have bragged about getting rid of me, but none of them have followed through for one simple reason: you can reset passwords, but you can’t reset human beings. People will (hopefully) have the same fingerprints for the rest of their lives.

There’s a misconception that we passwords are easy to hack and you aren’t. That’s baloney. Researchers from FireEye recently announced that they were able to remotely steal finger prints from an HTC (News - Alert) One Max and a Samsung Galaxy S5. Jan “Starbug” Krissler, leader of the Chaos Computer Club in Germany, proved that he could duplicate fingerprints from high-resolution photos. He recreated the thumbprint of the German Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen using publicly available photos. Your cousin the Retinal Scanner is no better. Starbug claims he has hacked a commercial retinal scanner using a printout of someone’s iris.

What would Instagram, Facebook (News - Alert) and Periscope become if everyone had to hide their thumbs and eyes? 

Deep down, you and I both know that without multifactor authentication (MFA (News - Alert)), neither of us can live to our full potential. Although those human beings groan and grumble when their banks force them to answer security questions or enter a one-time verification code before they log in, it has done them a world of good.

It’s just difficult to get anyone excited about MFA! Have you ever read a Buzzfeed article titled “17 Cats Who Wish They’d Had Multifactor Authentication”? No you haven’t.  

You and I were made for each other, Fingerprint Scanner. As a duo, we could be in the same league as peanut butter and jelly. So, here’s my proposal: let’s tell the humans that multifactor authentication with at least two factors – one biometric and one password – is the best option they currently have.

In enterprise networks, banking websites, healthcare portals, email, government sites and other sensitive places, you and I will be like Mr. and Mrs. Smith after that part in the movie where they make up and fight all the bad guys. If key fobs and other security tokens want to play third wheel, that’s cool with me.

Life is harsh, unpredictable and insecure for our kind. At the end of the day, we’re just 0s and 1s in an indifferent digital universe. If websites and mobiles devices don’t store us securely, we’re helpless.

Fingerprint Scanner, we could be really great together. This multifactor marriage could help shield humans from the risks of cybercrime and identity theft. I can live with being the Beast to your Beauty, but human beings have to accept me for who I am. I may have special characters in weird places, but I can change whenever they need me to.

No matter how many CEOs promise to wipe me out, I will not go gentle into that good night. If humans are too impatient for basic security, I fear for them. What is the big rush? What are productivity, efficiency and a ‘seamless user experience’ (bleh….human jargon) worth if hackers can ultimately steal their Social Security numbers, credit cards and fingerprints?

As I sit here encrypted, contemplating life from my server, I cannot help but ponder how long either of us will survive in a world where humans demand everything right now – a world where their lives are a state of anticipation between the beeps, rings, dings, vibrations and the next piece of content.

 Fingerprint Scanner, you need me as much as I need you. Let us help these people enjoy the fruits of innovation.

Yours truly,
p@ssworD!2345




Edited by Stefania Viscusi
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