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Linux Biometrics Site Opens Doors
flickerfly writes "A new site to unite the individuals interested in Linux and Biometrics has opened its doors. LinuxBiometrics.com's purpose is to fill the biometrics void in the Open Source community. With the increased adoption of Linux in europe and the recent increase in biometrics interest by the EU, this appears to be a field ready to blossom into heavy adoption and will be in need of OSS support."
Linux = good
biometrics = bad
Linux + biometrics = ?
Linux = good
Compulsory biometric records = bad
OS biometric software = good
.. and besides, doesnt biometrics suck? It's all about onetime identifiers. You cant easily change your eye, breath or thumbprint if they happened to fall into the wrong hands.
Open source biometrics shouldn't just be for those wacky Europeans who like OSS. Important security issues like biometrics should be engineered in an transparent fashion. This is necessary so that the citizens can be assured that their privacy is not being infringed, and that their security is being maintained.
Closed formats and security through obscurity have well documented shortcomings. For important government and security applications (voting machines, encryption, etc.) it seems like an open standard and open software is a much better way to ensure reliability, stability, fairness, and so forth. After all, security is pointless without trust... and I would argue that trust in a system is enhanced by it being open.
All Linux biometrics should look for HEAT in addition to regular biometrics (ie, fingerprint), so that something like this doesn't happen:
3 96 831.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4
A cold finger shouldn't be usable, and that will keep them all attached!
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You have no chance to survive make your time
I think ever since seeing the classic sci-fi series http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/blakes7/Blake's 7 as a kid the idea of biometric locks has filled me with dread.
There is a scene where the protagonists try to persuade the guard they have over powered to put his hand on the sensor to open the door so they can progress their escape. Naturally he is not helping.
Then Gan says to him: Look, we only need the hand. If you want to stay attached to it, do as you're told.
Strangely enough, instant compliance!
"You cant easily change your eye, breath or thumbprint if they happened to fall into the wrong hands."
With genetic manipulation you can.
... and trying to locate a PAM implementation was ridiculous. The vendors had locked into MS, and completely ignored the huge Solaris/Unix situation; government for example. When visiting with the Biometrics people in several research institutions, they gave me a dumb look when I asked about open source of a PAM, and it was all about Windows. Duh. Sun was extremely tight-lipped as they apparently were keeping that market as an opportunity for themselves.
I did find some odd threads of software activity, such as Univ. of Michigan, but that all seemed to go nowhere or die out; maybe they were all sucked up by the NSA? or the Banking industry?
I'm sure this site will draw more open interest.
Slightly off topic, but...
Are there any studies that measure the economic impact of Linux and FOSS in general in Europe. I know that an Airbus is 30% cheaper than a similar Boeing, and perhaps this is in part due to a broader use of more efficient/economical software in the European aerospace industry.
So if Europeans do use Linux more, does this show in the overall efficiency of the EU economies?
Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
....biometrics were supposed to keep doors CLOSED? :)
But only when not used for anything important.
For example, at a small company they're installing a biometric thingy to keep track of when people enter and exit. It looks like the biometric sensor will be used as a replacement of the username, and still require a password.
Now, using it for something seriously important, such as ATMs is definitely a very bad idea.
Did those doors have biometric security systems?
Give time for a really good endemic/pandemic of a really nasty, contact-dependant communicable bug, and hand-based biometrics are going to look like a bad idea real quickly.
Think SARS panic plus these stupid hand/fingerprint scanners.
At the University of Georgia, they already have such systems set up for access into the dining halls, dorms, and the rec facility. Thank God on the other side of those hand scanners there's usually a hand-sanitizer dispenser. If it weren't for that, I can only imagine how much more frequently I'd be ill.
Retinal biometrics, okay, just don't blind me. But hand-based biometrics... I mean, watch what you do with your hands everyday... then think about the guy in front of you in line who's using that scanner. Hope you like mucosal exchanges...
It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.
If you'd choose door number two, then you're a far stranger man than I'll ever be.
If you're working in a business where you absolutely need the best security for whatever you're doing, then you'd better be prepared to pay top-dollar for loyal bodyguards willing to use lethal force to keep you alive.
My digital rights don't need management.
I for one welcome our new Wesley-Snipes-with-my-eyeball-on-a-fork overlords!
Linux biometrics. As opposed to Windows biometrics? So biometrics that don't crash!!
Biometrics as a security measure has its drawbacks, mainly because some people will not worry too much over cutting off a victim's finger. But there are other areas where biometric identification can apply.
I could imagine getting pain or sleeping medication in a secure container that checked your fingerprint, and distributed the appropriate dosage only to the correct individual, for example. This would prevent someone swallowing the all the pills in the bottle (ie., attempted suicide), or giving medication to someone who shouldn't have it (painkillers and sleeping pills can become addictive, and some people ask 'friends' for them). Return the container to get your new dose.
To get really fancy, install a screamer circuit that alerts the local pharmacist or housedoctor when the container is breached; this would require a widely and cheaply available wireless network, though.
While this may technically be 'security', it's unlikely people will cut off fingers to get through it.
I've been looking for a year now, nothing free that will compile on a modern system, and I'm too much of an ijit to write anything like that...
... and low-tech thieves can just take the easy way out: chop off the finger.
$ make your time
make: *** No rule to make target `your'. Stop.
So, flickerfly/ Zonk, pun intended, right? :-)
+1 funny.
Ok, so that site uses a password?!
There are all kinds of authentication, and you're right, because they're neither secret nor changeable, they're not very useful as a key when the problem is of the form (A and B wish to verify each other and communicate securely). But there are a lot of other problems out there!
There are cases where either A or B is hostile or lazy, or otherwise unwilling to protect the mutual secret, and in those cases biometrics have the advantage that they're more difficult to share or pass around than passwords or dongles. Fingerprinting has been useful to police for a long time!
I can imagine biometrics being used to prevent people from sharing access to a resource for which only one (doesn't matter which) ought to have access. Which opens up a whole new can of worms...
So microwave ovens is something that happened to someone else...?
Quarter of a finger... I reckon about 15 seconds, with about 10 for the meat to rest. Not something Jamie Oliver will ever teach you, but it might be a recipir for bypassing a few tests.
You need to check for Pulse, temperature, pressure varience, revoaction (yes you need to know if someone has called the police to say they lost their finger, or eye),and also moisture i.e conductive charateristics, secondary factor controls such as a pin number, and behavioural anomalies (i.e. why are you drawing money out in nebraska when you live in bermondsey.).
In other words, average it all out and use your brain, or whatever silicon passes for it....
The secret of success is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake those, you've got it made. (Marx)
I'm liking the idea of having to use my fingerprint to use my Fedora Toaster 0.37 Maybe also include this for MMORPG login screens - "Place thumb on login pad. Authorizing... Welcome, be0wulf13!"
Mens et Manus
..and you are out. These two and three strikes and you get life laws that a lot of states have now have upped the ultraviolence potential of muggers, house burglars, car jackers, etc. If they know if they get caught for their second or third offense and will receive life, they are now just as apt to conk you on the head after they milked the atm machine dry of your cash. Finger or no finger biometrics, that's the reality on the ground now. Look at how many quick store employees just get shot right off the bat for some junky's next few bucks for a fix now. You see, you don't know in advance that Mr. Badguy is just going to be content with the cash, you have even odds now that he will also want to dispose of the witness in some manner after he's done using you. You have yto be psychic to know if he's going to harm you later or not, which isn't a pleasant thing to be forced into. In other words, remaining passive about the whole crime is no longer a good option, you are almost forced to assume the crime will escalate, and not in your favor.
Of course, there's option #5 a lot of us have now, it's called being armed and trained and ready to use it. Works a charm in a lot of situations. Not all, but quite a few. No sense in allowing yourself to be a professional victim in advance.
I for one welcome our retinal scanning overlords who in Soviet Russia rip out your eyeball and play soccer with it..
We used to steal fingerprints and download retna scans from computers. Even at times, switching some rich person's fingerprints and retnas with our own on the computer network that stored them.
It was easy then to walk into a bank, close out an account and withdraw millions from their account after the biometrics of the fingerprint and retna scan showed our team member was that rich person.
Of course this was the Sci Fi RPG Traveller in about 1985 when we did all that. All it took was a computer skill and access to the network that stores retna and fingerprint scans.
We also found another way to do it without a computer. Contact lenses with a hologram of the victim's retna on them, and high tech "fake skin" gloves for our hands with the victim's fingerprints molded on them.
Keep in mind this is a Sci Fi Role Playing Game, but it shows how ID theives can possibly pull it off.
We've done all sorts of things in RPGs, been good guys, bad guys, neutral guys, etc.
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I would love to get my Microsoft Finger Print scanner working. There are the mice and keyboard combo. I have the standalone unit. It would be nice to have it working under linux. Setup GDM, KDM to use this device for sign in on a linux box.
Biometrics are good at identification (= capability of differentiating between a set of individuals) but weak at authentification (= capability of certifying that an individual really is who he pretends to be). They are a good ide wherever you would use a "login". They are a bad idea wherever you would use a "password".
We all have personal web sites don't we and we all use Nuke or summat similar right? We don't all post flippin Slashdot articles about them though, do we?
This site seems like an empty *nuke site. Comeon Slashdot, if there isn't any real news, please don't feel that you have to lower the bar.
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B'dong.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.