Why You Should Stop Using Face ID Right Now

[usonian]

https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/why-you-should-stop-using-face-id-right-now

Biometric locks like face recognition are easy to set up—but thanks to a legal loophole, they're easier for law enforcement to bypass than a passcode.

Using a face scan to unlock your phone and log in to accounts is easy to set up, but it's not the best option for everyone. That's because, thanks to a 5th Amendment loophole, law enforcement agents can use your biometric data to unlock your phone. We saw this last month, when a Washington Post reporter's home was raided by the FBI. According to court records obtained by 404 Media, agents were unable to access the reporter’s iPhone because it was in Lockdown Mode, but they got a warrant from a federal judge to compel the reporter to unlock their computer via a fingerprint scan.

So are biometric scans a safe way to lock down your devices? After all, face and fingerprint scans can be used against you, while passwords and passcodes cannot. Let’s talk about why you may want to stop using biometrics to unlock your phone, sooner rather than later.

Repeat:

After all, face and fingerprint scans can be used against you, while passwords and passcodes cannot.

Be safe!

[CousinIT]

1. I use MFA, passkeys mostly. For phone, I use a numeric passcode - no face or fingerprint.

By law, you do not have to tell law enforcement the passcode.

Before leaving for any political activity, esp protests, I put the phone in airplane mode. No connectivity. And turn off location use for everything. EDIT: And last time, I set the phone so alerts, calls, or codes wouldn't show up on the home screen. But I can still take photos. Then turn it all back on when I'm back home.

Next time I'll be wearing sunglasses and a bandana around my face, too.

It doesn't cover everything and isn't perfect (many leave their phones at home, which is the safest option), but it's some of what I do.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. If "security" requires your face, finger, or retina, does it require that it/they actually be attached to your body ?

Criminals have already come up with their own answers to this question.

This was much discussed in fiction in previous decades. Remember "Thunderball" (1961 novel, 1965 movie) in which a pilot of a nuclear bomber "donates" his eyeball -- and thus retina -- to one of the bad guys ? I'm pretty sure stolen fingertips are already a "thing".

Remember Condoleezza Rice's infamous "No one could have imagined ..." statement after 9/11 ? No one could imagine terrorists crashing airliners into buildings, despite a few novels, a TV-movie, and considerable public discussion about very similar possibilities. Failure of imagination seems to be surprisingly widespread among those responsible for security in one theatre or another -- or perhaps overconfidence is just an authoritarian trait.

Before tech companies introduce new security "features", they need to query a few Death Row inmates about how they would deal with their proposals. The people introducing the technology have potential-profit-induced tunnel vision and a lack of imagination -- at least of the type needed.

[usonian]

3. I recall a James Bomd fake retina, and even Colombo got in on the act.

Dabney Coleman (spoiler alert) creates an alibi with a photo of his face intentionally seen in a stoplight camera.

Colombo, being Italian, notices that the light and shadows in this “artwork” don’t match the actual lighting.

Probably lots more examples.

Funny how the crooks are always one step ahead.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. "Thunderball" was the fourth Jame Bond movie. Nuclear-armed NATO bomber stolen w/a transplanted eye.

(Eye transplants do not involve re-attaching the optic nerve, so this pilot was flying half-blind, BTW. Eye banks make use of the front part of the eye, not the retina, AFAIK.)

[usonian]

5. Unfortunately, there's this.

And this:

Toddler Repeatedly Enters Wrong Password, Locks Dad’s iPad Until 2067
https://www.thedad.com/toddler-repeatedly-enters-wrong-password-locks-dads-ipad-until-2067/