The new iPhone 5s NSA (satire)
The truth about biometrics and the iPhone 5s:
Earlier this week, Apple announced that its new upmarket iPhone 5S will have a fingerprint identity sensor, entitled Touch ID, built directly into the device’s home button. The new generation premium Apple smartphone will feature a capacitive sensor that is 170 microns thin, feature 500 ppi resolution that can scan sub-epidermal layers and have a 360 degree readability capacity.
The sensor is built into the home button, can unlock the phone and make iTunes purchases. It also includes an embedded sapphire crystal, which will act as a lens to focus the sensor on fingerprints. Fingerprint data will be encrypted in the iPhones new A7 chip, won’t be accessible by software or stored on Apple’s servers and won’t be backed up to iCloud. (readers should be skeptical of such statements: see the NSA and FBI stories below)
Using an adaptive system, which Apple obtained through the purchase of AuthenTec Inc. last year, the iPhone sensor actually becomes more proficient at reading fingerprints the more it is used. AuthenTec specialized in offering content and data protection, access control and strong fingerprint security on mobile devices. By acquiring the firm, Apple obtained most of the foundational technology patents for fingerprint biometrics, along with a broad patent portfolio consisting of 200 issued and filed patents in the United States.
It’s estimated that Apple iOS penetration is only 17% of the total market, while PC and laptop fingerprint sensor (fps) penetration is at about 20% now, and has been thereabouts for years. Yet, though the PC market is provisioned, and now so is the Apple iPhone market, widespread penetration cannot and will not occur without open standards that make authentication methods interoperable.
That’s why the industry formed the FIDO Alliance, and that is how the industry as a whole will achieve widespread adoption of strong authentication.
The Biometric Research Group expects that the smartphone mass market will drive rapid growth in consumer electronics biometrics. Earlier this year, the consultancy previously predicted that widespread use of biometrics in consumer electronics would fuel total industry revenue growth.
Currently, Biometric Research Group predicts that biometric smartphones will increase the compound annual growth rate for consumer electronic biometrics by at least 35 percent over next five years. A major contributing factor in this growth will be increasing demand for personal devices that can conduct safe financial transactions.
In March, the Biometrics Research Group accurately predicted that biometrics would become integrated within a wide number of mobile devices within this upcoming smartphone product release cycle. The consultancy also predicted that integration would be driven by smartphone and tablet manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung Electronics.
Biometric Research Group still expects Samsung to release fingerprint recognition in its new mobile devices later this year. Further, the consultancy continues to expect that both gesture and fingerprint recognition will also ultimately be integrated into both company’s respective tablets as well.
http://www.biometricupdate.com/201309/mobile-commerce-will-drive-millions-of-biometric-smartphone-shipments-billions-in-transactions
NSA Prism program claims direct access to servers of firms including Google, Apple and Facebook:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data