NYPD employed to remind iPhone users to enter biometric fingerprints, which can be hacked

21st Century Wire says…

Michael Bloomberg’s Pretorian guard, the NYPD, were out in force on Monday doing street team work for Apple, vocally reminding iPhone users to opt-in to the Apple’s new OS software which requires a fingerprint ID on the touch screen. Talk about corporations getting into bed with government. Let’s give a shout out to Benito!

All those fingerprints could end up in a central database, so is that why NYPD were out working for Apple? It certainly looks that way.

For those who care about being spied on, tracked, and profiled by their loving federal government and partnering fascist corporations, we can explain to you now how you are being suckered with your wonderful new palm-god, the iPhone…

Zero Hedge reports:

“In case there was any concern that the umbilical cord between US corporations and government has never been thicker (especially in light of recent revelations that the NSA views the AAPL Borg Collective as useful “zombies“, abusing their credit cards just so they can be spied upon in new and improved ways) the New York Police Department is here to remind everyone of just that.

Why is the NYPD so transfixed by the Apple operating system upgrade cycle? Their justification (punctuated by five exclamation marks):

Attention Apple Users!!!!!

As of Wednesday, September 18, 2013 the new iOS 7 feature brings added security to your Apple devices.

By downloading the new operating system, should your device be lost or stolen it cannot be reprogrammed without an Apple ID and password. The download is FREE from Apple.

The download is FREE from Apple.

Odd: so previous AAPL operating systems did not have a lock screen? Or perhaps the NYPD was confused and meant zombies consumers should upgrade to the new 5S iPhone with a handy fingerprint scanner, which superficially at least would make theft more problematic?”

Well, we now know that the iPhone’s impregnable biometric ID feature can be hacked, and here’s how it’s done…

Our advice to those who truly value their freedom and privacy – learn how to navigate without a smartphone, and use one of these beauties (below) which is offered in a lovely range of colours to choose from – and with no 3G, no 4G and if you are really savvy, go older with an analogue model:

Death to the smart phone… long live the idiot-proof, stupid phone…

.
Time To Change Your Fingerprints: Apple’s Fingerprint Scanner Already Hacked
.
from the no-problem,-just-change-your…-oh-wait dept

Tech Dirt

While Apple has been touting its new TouchID fingerprint scanner as more secure, many people with experience in biometrics are quick to note that the problem with biometric security is once it’s cracked, you’re kind of in trouble, since you can’t just change your fingerprint/retina/voice etc. And, indeed, it took almost no time at all for the biometrics hacking team of the Chaos Computer Club to crack TouchID ”using everyday means.” You can see a video of them getting into a new iPhone with a different finger:

It appears that they’ve used the same basic method as has been used to hack fingerprint scanners in the past — get a high quality image of the user’s fingerprint and then:

The resulting image is then cleaned up, inverted and laser printed with 1200 dpi onto transparent sheet with a thick toner setting. Finally, pink latex milk or white woodglue is smeared into the pattern created by the toner onto the transparent sheet. After it cures, the thin latex sheet is lifted from the sheet, breathed on to make it a tiny bit moist and then placed onto the sensor to unlock the phone.

The only “difference” here is that they needed to use a higher resolution in the printing to match the higher resolution of Apple’s scanner. CCC points out, as others have in the past, that this should remind people that fingerprint scanning is not very secure.

“We hope that this finally puts to rest the illusions people have about fingerprint biometrics. It is plain stupid to use something that you can’t change and that you leave everywhere every day as a security token”, said Frank Rieger, spokesperson of the CCC. “The public should no longer be fooled by the biometrics industry with false security claims. Biometrics is fundamentally a technology designed for oppression and control, not for securing everyday device access.” Fingerprint biometrics in passports has been introduced in many countries despite the fact that by this global roll-out no security gain can be shown. 

iPhone users should avoid protecting sensitive data with their precious biometric fingerprint not only because it can be easily faked, as demonstrated by the CCC team. Also, you can easily be forced to unlock your phone against your will when being arrested. Forcing you to give up your (hopefully long) passcode is much harder under most jurisdictions than just casually swiping your phone over your handcuffed hands.

It wasn’t difficult to assume that this would happen. What’s surprising is that Apple doesn’t seem to have considered this fact.

-

21st Century Wire is an alternative news agency designed to enlighten, inform and educate readers about world events which are not always covered in the mainstream media.