Slashdot Mirror
IBM Introduces Biometric Thinkpad
An anonymous reader writes "IBM has added biometric security to its thinkpad notebooks. The next generation of T series thinkpads will have an integrated fingerprint scanner for added security. The latest machines will also include some pretty cool encryption software, that will keep your hard disk safe, but still let you backup and restore images. This guy managed to get his hands on an early prototype T42 with the new security features integrated."
"IBM has chosen to go with a swipe-scanner rather than a touch-scanner, for a number of reasons. First and foremost is that a swipe-scanner provides better security. Because you have to drag your fingertip across the scanner, there is no way to "lift" a fingerprint from the surface."
That is a great idea. Such an elegant solution to what could have been a big problem.
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
Does this mean you can hack it to record your friends' (or co-workers') fingerprints? Sounds fun and scary.
Playing pornographics games during the day is evil! Play at night!
I tried one of these laptops for a while, took me weeks to get the thing to stop calling me Dave.
Some models of Micron laptops have had this feature for a while.
Just saying IBM is fanot first to embed biometrics with their standard hardware.
will IBM include linux support?
The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
I was just at their website configuring a laptop for a business purchace. While I have to say their range of laptops are pretty slick their UI designer should be shot.
/. article, the hordes were in an uproar about the data security module in laptops. After seeing one on the website and with technical information, both the prior articles mentioning and this new biometric feature are for the purpose of protecting the users data from theft and not for "corporations" protection against "us". It wasn't engineered that way. Maybe in a few years that will happen, but to appease the paranoid crowd here - this is _FOR_ us. not against.
/.ing
Back on topic now, this laptop is nifty in itself. EArlier on another
=) happy
If they designed it in such a way that the LEA backdoor is secure (say, it's got an LEA public key on it, and the private key is kept in the forensics labs), I'll buy one tomorrow. I don't have a need to defend against .gov adversaries - I just want to know that the data on my drives remains secure even after someone steals 'em to get his or her crack fix.
If, however, they designed it in such a way that the backdoor is not secure (say, a default password stored in cleartext on a serial EEPROM), that's another story. I'll download the crack when it comes out next week, and my soldering iron and I will have an endless supply of cheap entertainment when the machines start showing up at the surplus stores in 2009.
...John Doe from Se7en. If he buys one of these how in the world will he ever get past the added security?
Can it be fooled simply and easily by a piece of jelly, like most fingerprint scanners on the market. Surely you can drag the jelly across.
Gamers Europe - Gaming News. Reviews.
The model in this review is running WinXP. I wonder if the fingerprinting software is available for Linux?
Now i know where i can buy DRM'ed computer!!!
Wondering why i am doing so strange posts? I am trying to get a "+5,Flamebait" or "-1,Insightful" rating.
I can't wait to see all the support websites.
"Cut my finger slicing tomoatoes, can't access my Thinkpad, HELP!!"
When I break my Finger? I need my files, you know...
The fingerprint setup software looks identical to the iPAQ that has the bioscan feature. That was a PktPC app, tho, so the real issue is whether someone will develop a Linux bio-encrypter for this laptop.
Otherwise it would remain a Win-only feature and useless to the converts.
Now the Mafia have finally got another reason to cut your fingers off! And they can shoot you before you talk, as you don't have to talk.
If Bad Guys really want your data, they'll take you along with your laptop and say "Unlock your machine or we'll cut off fingers until we find the one that works. Starting with your toes."
Trolling is a art,
http://ruggedpower.motorola.com/ Our local PD has them for detectives. Heavy, but nice feature set.
For an IT manager, biometric security will make life much easier. Gone will be all those phone calls from users who've forgotten their passwords. And there will be no more worries about insecure passwords, or even keystroke loggers, trapping passwords and passing them onto hackers and fraudsters.
Gone may be phone calls for forgotten passwords but there'll be plenty of new calls as to why their fingerprints aren't scanning. The function of accuracy for fingerprint scanners varies according to things such as the skin's elasticity. This changes with age, humidity, cuts, etc. So biometrics aren't a 100% fix. There will always be "goats," the people for whom biometrics just doesn't work well, including the biometrics professor around here who's missing a fingertips (not due to any experiment mishap, mind you). I'd also worry about the security of your stored biometric data. Hopefully it'd be a hash and not the raw data, which could be harvested and used. Then again, I wonder what the incidence of collisions in a hash that uses biometric data is?
To stop the casual snooper? Screensaver passwords do that already.
If the thief has physical access to the machine, nothing short of encryption is going to prevent him or her from getting at your data.
No, IBM had to wait for MS to finish longhorn first...
I would really like to know whether it will be possible to use fingerprint based encryption with Linux. TFA says it steps in before Windows.
I love my Thinkpad. I had a T30 before that stayed on 24/7 for over a year. The only time it was turned off was to/from vacation. The rest of the time it was a workhorse. Now I have a T42P and love it as much or more. Functional and VERY stable. Sure, it doesn't have some super new gizmos like others, but it works every time.
Every time someone asks me about a notebook I recommend IBM. They go out to Best Buy and get some other brand with 20 other options they don't need and then get mad when it breaks or isn't stable. Thanks IBM!
Yesterday when mikey announced IBM would be shipping more computers with "trusted" technologies, you all cried and threw a fit about it.
Now some of that hardware is reviewed and you can't get over how neato it is.
What about "your rights online" people!?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
"Please push your scrotum on the biometric sensor to login."
I suppose then no one has considered the benefits of having an extra finger on each hand... One to login, and one to stick up infront of all the early posters... Where do I sign up! Only now when you get your laptop stolen, your fingerprint is still all over the laptop/screen/keyboard so theres no point!?!
I'm a little disappointed that the encryption stuff may not transfer well to non-Windows OSs.
Now what happens when someones finger is damaged to due fire, electrical shock, or blunt trauma? I had this problem with an old Compaq laptop that had a system password at the BIOS level. It made the laptop permanently mine since I didn't want to disclose my password to anyone else.
I know there's room for 21 different fingerprints, but I wonder how many end users are going to think to register more than one of their fingers...just in case.
We have always been at war with Eurasia!
Typically posed as a trollish question, this author may or may not have had trolling in mind. I for one would like to know if there are any plans for the T42 Biometric laptops to have Linux run on them.
Am I the only one that sees where this can lead? How long will it take to condition people to use these things before they come mandatory in computers and have to be used.. most especially what if they become mandatory for internet connections.. I'm sure the RIAA and the MPAA would just love that..
.. it's naughty.. it's a naughty little sheep.. and then all of a sudden .. oh my GOD WE'VE BEEN SUED.. WE'VE BEEN SUED AND THROWN INTO JAIL.. ahem.. maybe not.. but still.. I worry about companies doing things like this.
This is what happens.. they give you a wolf in sheeps clothing.. and for awhile that wolf stays dorment and you like it and you pet
The Nomad
"Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active."-da Vinci
If you don't want an IBM Thinkpad for the fingerprint scanner, the APC fingerprint scanner/biometric reader seems to work pretty well. I saw it for $29 or so at Fry's yesterday.
My friend bought one a while back and used it rather successfully on his Dell D800 before he had to give the computer back to his employer. It was pretty accurate in scanning his fingerprint. He never got locked out of his machine.
I can't remember if the machine would NOT allow a login without the reader or not. If it would, then that sort of defeats the purpose of the reader if you were able to steal the laptop without the reader attached.
IronChefMorimoto
...you take the HD out and slap it into a Linux box and read the contents anyway, totally overstepping the added security.
Makes it kinda pointless.
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
In theory and from what I have read on the article, it will be a great device for security. But I don't think people will really realize how annoying this feature will become. If it gets damaged, no more using computer. If you get a nice little scare on the finger you choose to scan, no more using comptuer (unless of course you add more than one finger, but still). I guess this is one of those things that the government should use, I don't know how easy or useful it would be used for a personal use computer.
How good are Thinkpads when it comes to reliability? A friend of mine had a Toshiba, and got pissed when it broke down after three years. He's gotten an iBook now, after another friend convinced him they were much hardied. I've got a Toshiba; if it breaks down next year (three years!), should I go for a Thinkpad?
fingerprint biometrics are notoriously spoofable. only 1 in 1000 even mention "liveness detection" with an adequate threat model.
vascular scan biometrics are the only adequate security solution to date (with the possible exception of facial geometry). even iris scanners are susceptible to spoofing.
vascual ! always = retinal scan; many foreign banks are using hand vascular scans for banking transactions. facial vascular scans can also be less intrusive than retinal scans.
If someone gets your laptop, odds are they'll have no trouble reproducing your fingerprints.
Somebody please tell me how this isn't just a waste of time.
MPC laptops have had these for a while.
Oh wait, it's a Thinkpad. I forgot that when Thinkpads change, its news because they're normally 2 years behind. How about that sleek design?
Rumor has it that when an invalid finger print scan is detected, Windows Media Player goes into a full screen loop of old Care Bears episodes.
IBM Unveils First Biometric ThinkPad, Offering Security at Your Fingertips
IBM Integrates Fingerprint Reader with Embedded Security Subsystem; Tougher ThinkVantage Technology Strengthens IBM Security Architecture
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- Oct. 4, 2004 -- IBM is taking computing security and data protection to the next level today with the introduction of the first ThinkPad with an integrated fingerprint reader. ThinkPad, already the industry's most secure notebook PC (1), now features a model that delivers simplified access to password-protected personal and financial information, web sites, documents and e-mail while offering an unmatched level of data protection through its new biometric capability and embedded security subsystem.
"Today we raised the bar on security for the entire PC industry," said Fran O'Sullivan, general manager, IBM Personal Computing Division. "What was once considered science fiction is now available to all enterprises, large and small, in the notebook of choice for everyday business. The first biometric ThinkPad combines a fingerprint reader with an Embedded Security Subsystem, providing a layer of security that is built in, not bolted on. We take our customers' security into account in every aspect of our business solutions, from PCs to servers to middleware to wireless networks."
The fingerprint reader is built into select models of the ThinkPad T42. With the new reader, located on the wrist rest below the arrow keys, users swipe their finger across a small horizontally oriented sensor to log-on to their systems, software applications, web sites, or databases. The scanning process takes only seconds, combining convenience with the strongest notebook security available as a standard feature. This type of fingerprint reader captures more data than a traditional "picture" capture window because it scans more of the fingertip's surface area, helping to prevent misidentification.
"We place a huge priority on security and deployed IBM ThinkPad more than a year ago because they were the only notebooks to offer an integrated hardware and software security solution," said Shawn Nunley, director of technology development, NetScaler Inc., a networking systems company headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. "IBM's new ThinkPad with integrated fingerprint reader offers yet another level of security for us that is easy to deploy."
IBM On Demand Security Architecture and ThinkVantage Technologies
IBM also enhanced its hardware- and software-based Embedded Security Subsystem by releasing a new level of Client Security Software, Version 5.4, with a secure Password Manager, simplified ease-of-use and installation, and available by preload for the first time. The new version allows fingerprint identification and complex passphrases to be used interchangeably or in combination. The new software and the embedded security chip are seamlessly integrated with the fingerprint reader, protecting vital security information, such as encryption keys, electronic credentials and passphrases, and guarding against unauthorized user access.
The Embedded Security Subsystem is a key component of IBM ThinkVantage Technologies, a suite of tools that make ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops easier to deploy, connect, protect and support. The fingerprint reader represents only one level in a concentric set of IBM security solutions. They include servers, operating systems, identity management, middleware, web-based privacy, network access, storage, systems management and consulting solutions. These protect information in the face of external hacker threats, costly viruses and worms, e-mail spam, new wireless technologies, and the demands of government compliance.
Additionally, IBM and Utimaco Safeware today announced that IBM is authorized to resell Utimaco software to give users the ability to fully encrypt their entire hard drive. This protects against unauthorized access, should a notebook get stolen or lost. Utimaco Safeguard Easy is the first full dr
What happens if one injurs the finger he uses as his biometric passcode (such that his fingerprint is unreadable)? Perhaps one scans each of his fingers, figuring that the chances of injuring all ten digits is so low. Incidentally, does anyone know if small injuries, such as papercuts, throw off the fingerprint scanners?
Passwords won't be obsolete until people can't pick up your fingerprints from let's say a coffee mug, and then make a mold.
I don't have a scrotum you insensitive clod!
and i've got one.e riesbean.do?series=P7D
http://webshop.fujitsupc.com/fpc/Ecommerce/builds
this is the sexiest thing ever. but they still havn't given it a FRELLING WINDOWS KEY.
IBM isn't THAT evil. That's what would happen if someone like Sun made those.
:-D
IBM's would go into a full screen loop of George Carlin standup routines. Uncensored, of course.
-Jellisky
Changing your password just got a lot harder :)
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
So what happens if I get a papercut, lose a finger, lose a hand, somehow wind up with a scar over my finger or something? Is there any way to get at the data or is it lost forever unless I brute force the keys?
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
I have enough trouble pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del already. Now this... :(
Man With No Hands
I didn't RTFA, admittedly, but did IBM take her results into consideration before designing/implementing this feature?
Is it still possible to get IBM laptops without the DRM? I would like a new laptop, and I like the fact that IBM's are not Dells, but I don't want to fork out any cash for DRM harboring kit.
mefus
In Open Society, GPL Software frees YOU!
If they designed it in such a way that the LEA backdoor is secure (say, it's got an LEA public key on it, and the private key is kept in the forensics labs), I'll buy one tomorrow. I don't have a need to defend against
LEA means Law Enforcement Access. Some crypto and other security tokens [as in hardware, not Kerberos] have what is called LEAF - the Law Enforcement Access Field. The tokens themselves can be referenced as 'non-LEAF' and 'LEAF-enabled'.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Encrypting a Windows machine prior to login is nice, but in the rest of the world, the GUI is the last thing we run, not the first.
In Windows, you run the GUI, and execute the shell.
In Linux (and most Unixes), you run the shell, and execute the GUI. Its a very different paradigm.
You need to encrypt the data (AND swap!) at the bootloader level, otherwise the whole point of it is irrelevant.
I for one...
This sounds like an other trollish comment...
Yes, Notes runs on Windows.
Obviously, if you use Notes as your e-mail client, and someone sends you an e-mail that has an attachment which cracks Windows, and you open and run that attachment, your Windows system is infected. That has nothing to do with Notes per se, it would happen with any e-mail client.
What I was saying was that Notes itself has APIs and security -- and that there's never been a worm/virus that successfully exploited those APIs (unlike Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, which have been exploited in the past).
While we're on the subject, FYI, Lotus has a new collaborative infrastructure brand-named Workplace, which will work with a Linux client. This is completely separate from Lotus Notes.
I'm intrigued by the section that mentions that fingerprint authentication can also be used at Windows logon... I wonder how this is integrating with Windows? It would be cool if all of the user profiles on the active directory could get fingerprint data associated with them, but I suspect they're probably just submitting a stored password or something.
We've been using Safeguard Easy on Thinkpad laptops in our office for some years now, and it really doesn't seem to affect performance much... certainly not for office use anyway. Takes a hell of a long time to initially encrypt though.
The improved security only needs to be relative, not 100% fix. For many large companies the vast majority of the IT department's time is taken with forgotten passwords. Even a slight improvement over time spent recovering/creating new passwords would mean at least thousands of dollars saved for many large companies. Biometrics don't have to live up to hype, since the current security is so very inefficient, as well as not usually being particularly good.
If your RSA key is compromised, you can just generate another. You can do this as often as necessary. However, if you fingerprint is compromised, all you can do is switch fingers. Nine compromises later, you're SOL.
Now for ordinary folks who just use this to keep others from messing with their laptops, this isn't an issue. However, if security is critical, biometrics just won't cut it.
And, yes it's fairly easy to fool a finger print scanner. All it takes is some Krazy glue and a Gummi bear.
Wha? Swipe scans have all sorts of advantages, therefore its better suited for smaller consumer electronics? God knows how we need big, power consuming devices to keep laptops heavy and battery power low- it was like that in the old days...and we liked it that way.
I know it's lame, but the first thing that came to my mind when I read the number of prints that could be stored in the laptop was that women don't have the 21 "digits" that men do...
Weird on a Monday,
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
The improved security only needs to be relative, not 100% fix. For many large companies the vast majority of the IT department's time is taken with forgotten passwords. Even a slight improvement over time spent recovering/creating new passwords would mean thousands of dollars saved. Biometrics don't have to live up to hype, since current password security is so very inefficient(and annoying), anyways.
I am the guy they quoted in the original press release. I have one of these babies in my hands and let me tell you... pretty cool stuff.
My 2 cents...
The fingerprint reader is of a type that has not been 'fooled' yet. Yes, contact readers are easy to fool. This is not a contact reader. It reads the capacitive properties of the ridges and valleys that make up your finger print. This is actually quite cool since a severed finger does not have the same capacitive properties, and the reading is of live tissue *under* the skin, not your dead skin at the surface. So, a minor injury isn't going to be a big deal and the mafia cannot cut your finger off and use it. Furthermore, the extra small footprint of the reader is nice because there is less opportunity to damage the reader with scratches.
The idea is to register more than one finger and fingers from both hands. Of course, nothing is foolproof, but the idea here was to include a low cost yet effective way to provide biometric access control to the laptop. The embedded security system (ESS) protects a lot of things including a password vault. Password vaults have their drawbacks, the most obvious of which is if you have the 'master' password, you now have *all* of the passwords that user has stored in the vault. Average users tend to use simple master passwords, making the password vault a huge risk. This is a way to provide the functional equivalent of a strong password to unlock the vault without making the user have to remember a complicated password or some hardware key.
I am very impressed with the entire package. I think it will make it much simpler for IT to deploy things like ESS without destroying all of the value in ESS because users choose crappy passwords. There are a number of add-ons that make it very appropriate for enterprise deployment, including centralized key storage and disaster recovery software.
My biggest problem to date with this kind of software was it hasn't been real reliable in the recovery category. I could make it very secure, but God help me if I had a hard drive crash or an OS go belly up. The 'backups' of this data were often times 'too secure' to be recovered. This latest package of hardware/software has many of the previous holes filled in and I am happy to report success in all of the tests I have conducted so far.
Of course, anybody can implement this poorly. However, IBM has done a stellar job with it this time. I feel privileged to get to play with stuff like this.
-Shawn
It doesn't have Windows keys. What more can one ask for?
How is this different than apples FileVault feature in OSX which uses 128bit AES encription on your home directory?
I have a powerbook and I must say that the FileVault works beautifully (and seamlessly)
It used to be Microsoft copying Apple, but I guess IBM can do it to. Granted my powerbook doesn't use a fingerprint as the encryption key.. but still.
There was an interview in Business 2.0 a couple years ago with an individual who claimed she had had a very similar problem: she had just finished a presentation for a conference; the weekend before the conference she had a mishap in the kitchen and burned her finger, so she couldn't use the biometric authentication mechanism on her laptop. Her solution? She got on a plane and went to see her twin sister in Florida. She actually claimed in the article that "twins have identical fingerprints" and her sister was able to log in to her laptop for her and save the day.
The huge, glaring flaw in this scenario is that even identical twins will have fingerprints that look as much alike as the fingerprints of two random strangers on the street. The interview was good for a laugh, but sadly it does not appear to be available on the Business 2.0 site any more.
The individual was Bondra Bchneider, where B==S. She also referred to binary 1010 as "ten-ten"...
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
So long as you put the jelly over your real finger (which is the normal mode of usage), those types of scanners do get fooled (if I remember the original paper correctly).
Also, arteries and veins don't really show up on a thermal imprint, especially not the fine vessels you would see in fingertips. So it's not necessary to fake that level of detail.
So, IR over optical shouldn't make that big a difference.
DNA just wants to be free...
I guess it depends on what you mean by "steal". Sure, your actual physical fingerprints might be a bit tricky to grab without you noticing...
However, given that you leave thousands of impressions of them all over the place every day I wouldn't really call them that hard to steal.
Do you plan on wearing cotton gloves everywhere?
DNA just wants to be free...
There is a big problem with all this.
At the moment, with current levels of security, if anyone's account/CC/whatever gets hacked, you at least have the option to change password, account UID etc. etc.
When it all comes down to biometrics, and the hacks come out to mimic finger prints, eye scans, pubic hair et al, what we all going to do? You can't like change your fingerprints/DNS overnight???
Doh!
The "partial data" is almost certainly a checksum, that takes hundreds of datapoints and combines them into one non-reversible number. This is also done with text passwords.
A xerox of a finger won't work, since this is not an optical scanner. it measures the capacitance between ridges. Any fake is going to need to be 3D, have the electrical properties of a human, and be swipeable (so perhaps not jello..)
Finally, I doubt that the signal to the bios is as simple as a on-off circuit. To begin with, this is probably a single chip seated on a board, not tied with alligator clips and wire. More likely it uses the CPU to compare checksums.. in any case, I'm sure IBM employs intelligent people.
This has been in iPAQ h5000 series Pocket PC for almost two years. It's in the hx2000 series also.
Fingerprint biometric authentication is (still) useless. Your fingerprint as your password may be very easy to use, but it offers low or no security. This is mainly because of three reasons:
No, this is crap. The sole purpose of it is to sell crappy equipment to PHBs and other people who get impressed with the SciFi-ness of it.
There are lots of other good solutions to this. You can have a smartcard with an RSA engine on them. These are available both in credit card form factor (the GNUPG guy actually resells one) and USB tokens. Another good solution are the RSA SecureKey one time passwords with a small token on your key ring. Both of these are probably cheaper and are more secure.
This has been in iPAQ h5000 series Pocket PC for almost two years. It's in the hx2000 series also.
As you and your modder point out, it's a good thing this laptop has hardware encrytion.
There are several vendors over here in Germany that offer Thinkpads with Linux. It's an offer specifically targeted at students, you get comparatively large discounts. The devices are still too expensive, compared with US prices, though... (I hope one day we'll actually reap the benefits of the US trade balance ;))
At present, however there's only an R51 model on sale... and even that is somewhat of a weird offer, it ships with XP preinstalled, and you get an install CD for a custom IBM version of SuSE 9.1 Professional that automatically configures itself into a Dual Boot configuration, preserving the hibernation files etc. and with Linux drivers preinstalled.
As a state gets corrupt, its laws multiply; the most corrupt states have the most numerous laws. (Tacitus, Annales 3:27)
http://shit.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/04/1 543209
This article from 2002 claims that most fingerprint readers available to joe user by that time were easy to fool. Easy as in: press a plastic bag filled with warm water on it to replay the last print.
Are we looking at a new, better generation of readers today or are they still as insecure as they used to be?
Sigh they are taking fingerprints of everyone entering your country.
And face shots. Basically they are a bunch of assholes, I'll stick to passwords for the timebeing.
Although IBM is a great company and makes great machines would it do much harm to get someone to actually design their computers. I mean honestly they look like shit even though the hardware is great. Gotta love'em though.
Also, the Electrovaya Scribbler SC800 and Electrovaya Scribbler SC2100 have finger print scanners as well. [1] They've had them for years. I guess they are just becomming more mainstream.
o du ct.html
http://www.electrovaya.com/product/scribbler_pr
So IBM is behind the times? Why is this news?
My gateway 450xl has built in fingerprint scanning just like they describe and I've had it since July. And this feature isn't even available in the IBMs yet?
Hopefully since this is OS-independent they will support it for a little longer. IBM has this awful habit of making these proprietary pieces of hardware and then stopping support for them as soon as MS releases a new OS.
I just tried setting up a TP with Windows XP, no more drivers for that internal modem! Had a SmartCard reader for another TP. No support past Windows 98! That cool mouse with an integrated trackpoint? No you'll have to stop using it in Windows 2000!
I'm still a fan of their hardware though.
HELLO?!?!? When in the world will they get with it and design a 15" WIDESCREEN laptop? I'm also curious why they are taking forever to release a "T" performance model with built-in DVD recording capabilities. Ugh.
Having used IBM ThinkPad extensively, and RTFA, I'd say that Linux users can look forward to getting at least part of the benefit of the new ThinkPad's multilayered security right out of the box. If we say that the new T42 has three layers:
1) Fingerprint "PowerOn" Login
2) Fingerprint OS Login
3) Harddrive and removable data encryption
It's pretty easy to see how 1) above will work seamlessly with Linux (or any OS) as it occurs before OS boot, but I highly doubt 2) and 3) will work as is. That's not to say such features can't be added, but right out of the box it looks dim.
Still, even having PowerOn fingerprint verification will stop a large number of thieves, and traditional Linux login and filesystem security can be used as layers 2) and 3). So at the very least, a T42 with the new fingerprint ID has one extra layer on top of standard Linux security. And should you not want it, you can always disable it by disabling the "PowerOn" password in the boot menu...
Thanks to the original reviewer - you just saved me, as I was getting ready to buy a T42 in the next two weeks...now I will just have to wait!
..when your laptop autmatically uploads your fingerprint to IBM's database, and forwards it (along with your name, address and a notation that you are running a pirated copy of windows, and have over 5000 MP3's) to your friends at MS, RIAA etc.
Hey, we read your post fine the first time. No need to post it again ;) Seriously, though, my own experience with fingerprint scanning has been just awful. A friend and I were going to do a work-from-home call center gig which required that we purchase a fingerprint scanner which would be used to log us on to the customer database.
On average, it took up to 15 min to get the fucking thing to work.
We quickly ditched that company but ended up several
hundred bucks in the red.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
http://ruggedpower.motorola.com/ .. and that magnesium case super duper secure thingy sports a shiny Windows XP desktop in the ad.. why would anyone use a hammer, biometrics or even cryptography when them bloody files are http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb; en-us;308993&sd=tech
just a few clicks away? The really cute and helpful part is - "Only the following people can decrypt an encrypted file: #4 Any user who has been granted access to the file". Yes, I know what this means, but please you try and explain to Joe Shmuck that his file is lost for good (hehehe, got beer?) when "but I did right click and said Susan can read it".