[16336] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: New IBM Thinkpad includes biometrics
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Peter Gutmann)
Fri Oct 22 00:47:46 2004
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
From: pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz (Peter Gutmann)
To: astiglic@okiok.com, lynn@garlic.com
Cc: cryptography@metzdowd.com
In-Reply-To: <1098220250.3501.87.camel@lhwlinux>
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 17:23:07 +1300
Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
>one of the market targets of biometrics has been those that write their
>password on their machine (or don't even bother with a password).
Even that may not be a valid market target. If your threat model is script
kiddies/hackers in eastern Europe (that is, generic un-targeted attacks, the
most common type) then writing your password on a post-it note is a perfectly
acceptable response, because the one thing a script kiddie can't do is get
physical access to your desk. So the primary market for biometrics would
really be people for whom passwords are too much effort (as the former US
biometrics czar said, they're for convenience, not security).
Peter.
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