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Steve Jones Editor at SQLServerCentral.com You can follow Steve on Twitter as way0utwest (www.twitter.com/way0utwest)

The Security of You - Why Did I Write This?

By Steve Jones in SQL Musings | 11-10-2008 8:33 AM | Categories: Filed under: security, Editorial, writing, biometrics

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When I first got my new laptop, I thought it was very cool. It included a fingerprint reader below the mouse pad. I was excited to start getting myself set up and using that to log in.

But then I started thinking. What if someone hacks my laptop with a trojan of some sort and copies my digital fingerprint? That's the type of information that it might make some sense to steal at some point and keep around. Why I'm not sure, but what if they could use it somehow? What if they could send my fingerprint somewhere to some system that mattered? That's not something I can change, unlike a passcode or a smartcard.

My concern in the editorial was mostly a trust issue, and I hope that came across.

Why did I write this? I got challenged by Andy Warren to write a bit about why I wrote something. I complained to him that he has some "mechanical" posts on this blog that just mention he wrote something with some questions, and don't really blog about why he wrote something. He challenged me to write about why I wrote something, so here I am.

Comments

Jerry Hung said:

I always believed in the "if he/she has physical access to the computer, nothing is safe". Fingerprint just makes it much harder (just as BIOS password), not impossible.

Speaking of which, I love logging into my T61 with my fingerprints (either left or right hand fingers), saved me typing every time after the screen saver :P

November 10, 2008 1:38 PM

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The Security of You - Why Did I Write This?

Jerry Hung said:

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