Apple iPhone and the Sapphire plated Touch ID Fingerprint scanner - The Death of passwords and the birth of Biometrics

The Apple iPhone 5S features a Biometric Fingerprint Technology called Touch ID as described in “iPhone 5S comes with Touch ID fingerprint scanner”, published September 10, 2013 11:04 AM PDT by Seth Rosenblatt, CNET News and “Apple wants your fingers! iPhone 5S to include ‘Touch ID’ for fingerprint reading”, published September 10, 2013 By Joshua Sherman, DigitalTrends.

The Touch ID was developed by Authentec, a Biometric component designer that Apple acquired back in July 2012  as stated in “Apple buys mobile security firm AuthenTec for $356 million”, published Friday July 27, 2012 7:03pm EDT By Poornima Gupta and Sinead Carew, Reuters. 

Along with the fact that the Apple iPhone 4S has a 64-bit Processor, this smartphone is literally technologically more advanced than Samsung’s Galaxy of smartphones. But does all this mean that the password is dead on smartphones? Short answer: Yes!

Touch ID in a nutshell – Sapphire studded Cowboy

Their contribution to the Apple iPhone 5S is nothing short of stellar as described in the article “How Apple's Touch ID Fingerprint Sensor Works To Protect Your Identity”, published 11 September 2013, by Adriana Lee, Readwrite:

1.      Capacitive fingerprint sensor that's 170 microns thin

2.      It’s made of Sapphire Glass

3.      500 ppi (Pixels per Inch) resolution

4.      Scans 360 degrees, irregardless of the orientation of the finger

5.      Keeps copies of the finger scanned in the phone, not in iCloud or on any of Apple’s Servers

Apparently the fingerprint scanner can tell if you’re dead or alive as stated in “Apple’s iPhone 5S could have a fingerprint scanner – and we want that why?”, published July 30, 2013 By Andrew Couts, DigitalTrends. Persons with sweaty finger may have a problem as stated in the article “iPhone 5S fingerprint sensor is ill-disposed to sweat”, published September 11, 2013 4:52 PM PDT by Dara Kerr, CNET News which they simply solve by either wiping the finger clean or using another finger, as it doesn’t have to be the thumb.

Touch ID replaces the lock screen password and far more secure, as it’s your fingerprint, which is hard to duplicate, even if you cut off the person’s hand. Aside from making the Apple iPhone impossible to use unless unlock by the user, touch ID serves as authentication for purchasing items online.

This should come as good news for parents who loan their toddlers their smartphones to play games but don’t want them using the credit card to purchase app or make in-app purchases by mistake. The death of the password means that cumbersome codes to remember and forgetting your phone passcode means no trips to the phone unlocker dude when you forget as described in my blog article entitled “How to unlock any phone and put it on any Network - Guaranteed to unlock any Feature or Smartphone on the Chennai Express”.

Passwords are so 18^th Century – From Fingerprints to Passthoughts

Passwords go back a long time indeed. They are the catch phrases used in Medieval times to grant access to a fortification or Castle at night for spies on the Night Watch, as being covert is part of their game. To gain entry to the castle, knowing the secret password to tell the guard would mean the difference in battle, as while inside your enemy can gain insight into your battle strategy.

Today the password concept is seen in almost every service we use online both Free and Paid access. This makes life a trifle difficult, as it’s best to have:

1.      Long multi-character alphanumeric passwords

2.      Long multi-case alphanumeric passwords

3.      Passwords unique for every service to guarantee security

Thus using your birthdate, you mother maiden name, the word “password”, a string of counting numbers e.g. “12345678” or any name or number familiar to is a no-no, as hackers can, based on their knowledge of you which they can easily Google in this age of Social Networking, easily Socially Engineer your password. A good example of a strong password is: Cabbage2357Fortress. This password example fulfills all the characteristics of the above.

Replacing the Password – Phishing Trips make them Obsolete

However, the fact remains that most people don’t use anyway according to a study done in February 2013 antivirus maker MacAfee as reported in “Three of 10 smartphone owners don't use passwords”, published February 26, 2013 by Doug Gross, CNN.

To this end, Google had begun working on methods to replace passwords as according to Google's Manager of Information security, Heather Adkins at the TechCrunch Disrupt panel called "Spies Like Us," says, quote "passwords are dead" as reported in the article “Google security exec: 'Passwords are dead'”, published September 10, 2013 12:57 PM PDT by Daniel Terdiman, CNET News. 

This is necessary as a new scourge of Spear Phishing using Keyloggers is creating havoc on all this above wisdom as stated in my blog article entitled “Professor Marco Gercke warns of Scammers using Keyloggers for Spear Phishing - How to use Keyloggers and how to Protect yourself from Scammer's American Hustle for Fast Cash”.

Whether manually installed or a more sophisticated deliver method is used such as clicking on an infected link or reading an infected email, hackers can use phishing methods to record your keystrokes using keyloggers to gain access to your account, no matter how complex your password. The only safeguard is to use a computer with a Linux OS or an Apple Computer as these are not susceptible to phishing attacks which primarily go after Windows machines!

In the case of smartphones, the use of passwords makes them the target of thieves, who know all too well that stealing a phone guarantees them a quick resale, as they can easily unlock the phone once they break the password, which in many cases isn’t so hard, as many persons don’t use a password on their smartphone to begin with.

Smartphones are the focus – The power of Fingerprints

This is indeed true. Smartphones and Tablets are the new frontier, as a device that has no warranty, costs thousands of dollars and in most cases only has a swipe and unlock feature is ripe for thievery. Worse now that the Apple iPhone 5S is confirmed on Tuesday September 10^th 2013 Launch to be coming in Gold Colours as noted in my blog article entitled “Apple has launched the Apple iPhone 5S and 5C on Tuesday September 10th 2013 - Apple iPhone Strategy is to Go Global to beat Samsung”.

So Apple’s Touch ID is really Apple being both proactive and innovative. Others have tried their hand at biometric security for smartphones and have failed. The Motorola Atrix in 2011 was actually the first smartphone to utilize a fingerprint scanner, but theirs was error prone even as they mocked Apple as stated in the article “Motorola Bashes Apple's iPhone Fingerprint Reader, Forgets It Sold One First”, published 9/11/2013 @ 8:07PM by Andy Greenberg, Forbes

The Samsung Galaxy SIII, which launched with much fanfare in 2012, promised improved security via using facial recognition as stated in “Samsung launches Galaxy S III with voice and face recognition”, published May 3, 2012 03:57 PM ET By Matt Hamblen, Computerworld. Amusingly, persons began reporting using photographs to gain access to their phones, suggesting a method to hack the Samsung Galaxy SIII as stated in “Samsung Galaxy S3 Face Unlock Tricked by Photograph”, published June 18, 2012 3:37 PM GMT by Alistair Charlton, ibTimes among other curious security flaws!

Clearly here, Apple’s reputation is on the line. The next few days are a wait-and-see period to discover if some enterprising hacker has hacked the Apple iPhone 5S!

The Future of Passwords – Cost reduction helps Retina Scanners see Red

If you’ve watched the movie Minority Report, you’d realized that in that movie, everything is accessible via your Retina Scan or fingerprint, even opening the door or serving you up advertisement or charging you for a ride on the subway. The fact that biometric security is not so widespread has partially to do with cost.

These Scanners are expensive and difficult to install. The databases are not easy to maintain either and the algorithms involved in processing the data to make sure it unique to each person’s complex set of prints. Authentec seems to have solved all this using a higher resolution scanner to avoid mistakes and discriminate between live persons and dead ones. The system is only affected by persons with sweaty fingers or if the finger in question is on a hand that’s dead.

This may have something to do with the fact that the Fingerprint scanner, located beneath the Home Button, uses Sapphire as is main material. This as Sapphire is red in colour and is a crystalline form of Aluminium Oxide (Al₂O₃) which can be made from Bauxite as described in my blog article entitled “Sapphire Screens for smartphones by Q1 2014 - Unscratchable Sign of Virgo is the Man of Steel to revive Jamaican Alumina Industry”.

Thus the Sapphire ring may be acting as a kind of Red Filter, thus making it easier to detect a living hand may explain why Apple made the Fingerprint Sensor Ring out of Sapphire. It also explains why it doesn’t work with sweat, as sweat easily changes the refractive index of the scanner, suggesting the system uses visible light similar to a Bar code Scanner.

Even more impressive is that the algorithm uses the 64-bit A7 Processor built into the Apple iPhone 7, suggesting either the code is written to take advantage of the full power of the 64-bit Processor or it’s’ better, much more tightly written code.

One thing is for sure though: Apple’s 64-bit A7 Processor sets up Apple to introduce 64-bit Applications that run much faster as it has a longer word length, enableing a 2x speed boost in processing Power for an equivalent speed but requires more memory, possibly in the4GB region as opined in “Why Apple went 64-bit with the iPhone 5s”, published September 13, 2013 -- 14:30 GMT (07:30 PDT By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet.

This is particularly good for Gaming and other Processor intensive Applications. It also sets up the Apple iPhone for future applications that require more Processor power. And naturally in all of this, Samsung, betraying a bit of Jealousy, has stated that it too may have 64-bit Processors in the works for it’s Samsung Galaxy SV smartphones despite Google android 4.4 aka KitKat not being 64-bit compatible as stated in “Samsung wants you to know that it’s gonna have 64-bit Android phones, too”, published September 12, 2013 By Andy Boxall, DigitalTrends.

Samsung has their work cut out – Apple’s back, Back again

Definitely dear reader, Apple’s back, back again, to quote the Eminem song Without Me. This is top notch security on a smartphone that makes this more of a reason to have, as it now means no-one can steal your smartphone.

Now if Apple were to make their next smartphone with a Sapphire screen, Sapphire Screen, 128GB Internal Memory Version, support for Wi-Fi Direct, self-recharging Lithium-ion Polymer Battery with a Battery life measured in months and weeks and not days and a 12.1 Megapixel Camera as I had predicted in my blog article entitled “Sharp develops world's thinnest 12.1 Megapixel Camera - Apple iPhone 5 and Apple iPad 3 in Sharp's focus”.

There would be no need to increase the screen size, the favorite moot point of Apple bashers and Google Android Lovers. Such a phone toting a 64-Bit A7 Processor would possess the power to become a Remote Control for anything in the House. Even an Apple Television and a Video Game Console fashioned from the Apple iTV as stated in my blog article entitled “Apple to launch TV and a Cloud Gaming Console in 2014 - How the Apple iTV and Television Set can kill The Grandmaster in the guise of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft”.

Oh….one more thing! – More Apple Goodies cometh

 I’m kinda disappointed that there’s no news on any other products, such as my blog article entitled “Apple to launch the Apple iPhone 5S and a S$199 Contract-less Apple iPhone 5C on Tuesday September 10 2013 - ATL and LIME Jamaica may not get Goldfinger that's Made for China”.

But with rumours already trickling our about the Apple iPad and its Mini Me Cousin, the Apple iPad Mini as stated in “Purported pics of Apple's iPad 5, iPad Mini 2 hit the Web”, published September 12, 2013 9:28 AM PDT by Don Reisinger, CNET News, it portends to one fact: it’s only a matter of time before we get yet another Bite of the Apple!