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Face Recognition Goes Mainstream For Notebooks
Posted by
timothy
on Sun Jun 08, 2008 02:01 AM
from the don't-get-too-mangled-at-the-bullfights dept.
from the don't-get-too-mangled-at-the-bullfights dept.
MojoKid writes "Consumer and business-class computer security has clearly become more sophisticated over the years.
Recent advances in recognition technology have brought forth new capabilities, like what can be found in Toshiba A305 series notebooks. Toshiba's Face Recognition software allows you to log in to the system simply by having your face properly recognized by the integrated webcam during Windows startup. Of course, the system's TrueSuite Access Manager also allows you to do the same, only using your fingers and the integrated fingerprint reader. However, TrueSuite goes a step further with the fingerprint reader, also allowing you to log in to Web sites, applications, and networks as well by using just your fingerprints."
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Reliability (Score:3, Interesting)
sounds like a good lock (Score:4, Insightful)
Otherwise, if the "bad guys" have access to your machine, you're Pwn3d. Demos have been done using pictures of people to fool facial recognition software.
Of course, if an owner has cosmetic surgery or a really nasty accident, it's the owner who'll get locked out of the machine. If they want to use biometric ID for anything but security theater, they need it as part of at least two-factor authentication. . . meaning "something you know" (i.e., a password) or something you've got (e.g. an RFID token key)
Parent
and the downgrade? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:and the downgrade? (Score:5, Insightful)
It'd be great to have computers with stereo vision... With so many computers now coming standard with pinhole webcams, surely they don't cost too much. You could place one webcam at each top corner of the screen and then the computer would be able to produce a 3-D image of its environment.
Now you have to get a 3-D model of the person's face instead of just a photo.
This whole thing could be really bad. Imagine someone that just underwent massive facial trauma. Now, not even their computer likes them.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:and the downgrade? (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes and no. For someone buying a laptop and then making regular use of this technology, it's absurd, or at least little more than a toy when viwed from a security perspective. On the other, we all seem to be heading to a future where computers are, or least behave, in a more personal manner, so in that sense, this technology is, for lack of a better word, a really cool idea.
Then, consider that the world around around us is demanding increased security and is thus subject to increased surveillance and control. That's true from the CCTV cameras monitored by law enforcement, to the folks at your local DMV or voting precinct trying to prevent fraud, to the liquor store owner checking his store while he's at home. It's a fair assumption that with increasing interest in these technologies, we'll see a corresponding increases in research and development, which will, in the end, lead to widespread usage of whatever technology wins out, whether that's iris scans, fingerprints. forearm barcode tatoos, DNA, faces, or a combination of any of the above. If you took a vote on which approach people want, I doubt anyone would say "It's more passwords and PINs for me!".
If it becomes possible to replace every lock and key with some sort of recognition software, would you complain, or tout all the benefits? Or if you could save tax dollars by replacing local security on the streets and Home Depots everywhere with similar software, would you view that a good or bad idea?
Let's face it, the above scenarios aren't very likely, at least in the short term. We're still working on voice recognition. For now, however, it doesn't mean we can't have fun playing with Toshiba laptops.
Parent
I'd rather get info from people with a clue. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Cut off fingers? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Cut off fingers? (Score:5, Insightful)
Biometric ID has it's bad points, and certainly, in the most secure settings, you'll probably want to make sure you have contingencies for these. But these are not notebooks designed for the FBI, they are designed for the security conscious business user.
With that in mind, suppose, today, that a criminal was sitting before you with a knife, threatening to cut off your fingers one by one if you did not give him your notebook password. Are you really willing to sit there and tell me that you would rather have your hands butchered than give up your text-based password?
If someone was really willing to go to lengths like cutting your fingers off, then they probably have all sorts of incentive to do all sorts of awful things. I'm not sure Biometric security appreciably changes the situation for 99.9% of users.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
With that in mind, suppose, today, that a criminal was sitting before you with a knife, threatening to cut off your fingers one by one if you did not give him your notebook password. Are you really willing to sit there and tell me that you would rather have your hands butchered than give up your text-based password?
That's where plausible deniability tech comes in. You'd give the criminal an alternative password which works but decrypts a dummy disk instead.
Though, the same technique could work for fingerprints. One finger gives you the real files, another gives you the dummy. Though testing for this isn't that hardm as there are only 10 to check.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But these are not notebooks designed for the FBI, they are designed for the security conscious business user.
That's the problem. People believe that these things are secure enough for the security conscious business user. Laptops are stolen all the time, whether for corporate espionage purposes or for resell value. The thing most people don't realize is that you don't have to cut someone's finger off to use their fingerprint on common scanners. There are many ways (the gummy bear technique) to fake a person's finger and print for these cheap fingerprint scanners.
How hard is it to type in a ten character pas
Yes, they do cut off fingerss. (Score:5, Informative)
Of course face recognition is good: hold up a photo to the camera, and you're good.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No, of course not. I'd give up the password in an instant. That's the point! There better be a text-based alternate login.
Re:Cut off fingers? (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Evil twin (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Evil twin (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
This seems so gimmicky. (Score:4, Insightful)
It's also likely the package is designed to be circumvented out of the box, as there could be some painful customer support issues if their software ever manages to lock out a legitimate user without such a feature.
Even with this, there's nothing to stop a common criminal who will just nuke and pave the system for export to South America or another country, which occurs quite often.
Oh no! Not again. (Score:5, Informative)
It is important to note that both fingerprint and face-recognition technologies are not foolproof--there are a number of known, low-tech means of circumventing them. As such, depending on how secure access to your system, data, and Web sites needs to be, you might want to think twice before relying on these alternatives to typewritten passwords.
Right! Such as presenting it with a photo of the owner. Or using one of several well-known techniques to lift a fingerprint from somewhere (the computer itself?) and create a fake finger.
Why isn't this kind of "security" generally laughed at by the consumers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA4Xx5Noxyo [youtube.com]
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/05/16/gummi_bears_defeat_fingerprint_sensors/ [theregister.co.uk]
And from 1998:
http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-9808.html#biometrics [schneier.com]
This is new? (Score:3)
Thinkpads have done this for at least two years already. The password manager app even has a plugin for Firefox. Mind you, I disabled it almost immediately because it adds an addition, out-of-place "Save this password?" prompt to every ever remotely passwordy prompt in Windows, IE, or Firefox.
But the functionality is there, and has been for some time. I hope these TrueSuite guys don't genuinely think they've got something new.
Another gimmick (Score:4, Insightful)
Rubbish. Without full disk encryption, laptops today are as vulnerable as they were 15 years ago. If anything they're *more* vulnerable nowadays, simply because we store more on them, keep them connected to the net all the time, and more people are using them.
Gimmicks like fingerprint readers and face recognition are worthless if someone steals your machine. Simply boot knoppix, mount the fat/ntfs partition and copy all that juicy data right off the drive. In fact this happened to a high-profile person recently - someone recovered Adrian Sutil's (F1 driver) discarded hard disk and tried to get money off him in exchange for not publishing his photos and emails.
Face recognition is probably good fun to try out in the store and maybe help sell a few machines. But disk encryption and strong passphrases are inconvenient and require a bit of work, so nobody uses it.
Now, wiith preloaded crapware! Do not buy. (Score:5, Informative)
The A305-S6845 comes with a fairly crowded Windows desktop, filled with icons for pre-loaded software and web links to numerous free offers.
This thing has substantial crap preloaded onto it. It even has Vongo pre-installed, which is very hard to uninstall. [cnet.com] It has PowerCinema installed, which not only is hard to uninstall but uses resources when idle. And those are just the ones known to be malware. Buy from another vendor.
Not really new (Score:5, Insightful)