USB "thumbdrives" with fingerprint detection

Tom Buskey tbuskey at gmail.com
Mon May 9 09:10:01 EDT 2005


On 5/8/05, Benjamin Scott <dragonhawk at iname.com> wrote:
> On May 8 at 6:39pm, Bruce Dawson wrote:
> > Does anyone know if Linux supports these?

<stuff deleted>

>    And a third: Fingerprint is used to cipher a key stored on the drive, and
> that key is then used to cipher the data.  This would really be the preferred
> method, as it allows the option of multiple fingers/people using the same
> drive.  I would hate to loose my data just because I scarred my finger tip.
> 
> > Obviously, the former is desired, but I can think of lots of Trade
> > Restrictions it would interfere with.
> 
>    More importantly, as Bruce Schneider aptly observed, it is a lot easier and
> cheaper to just sell snake oil that claims to be secure then it is to actually
> make something secure; at the same time, "apparently secure" and "secure" are
> generally indistinguishable without a detailed investigation.

Indeed.  I've head that many of these fingerprint readers can be
fooled with a piece of gelatin.  Maybe it's an interesting toy but I
wouldn't trust it for real security.

On a similar note, has anyone seen
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?T1=132+0425&dept=lch30&search=&child=

It's a wireless PC lock.  You have a transmitter in your pocket & a
USB device in the PC.  When you're more then 7' away it "locks" your
computer.

It would seem a bluetooth solution would be possible and I've heard of
someone playing with an RFID tag implanted in their hand (really!) for
unlocking things.



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