Slashdot Mirror
Smart Gun Inspires Smart Mouse Authentification System
dcblogs writes Defense contractor Raytheon has received a patent for a mouse that has a biometric pressure grip. It believes the pressure grip, as a form of authentication, will be particularly hard to defeat because it works from a neurological pattern versus a physical pattern, such as a facial scan. "It's not just how much pressure you exert on the mouse itself, but it's also the x-y coordinates of your position," said Glenn Kaufman, a cybersecurity engineer. The approach was inspired by similar pressure grips used in smart guns.
Authentification?
Hint: more foreplay
It hurts the palm of my hand to hold it the same way all the time.
Even beside that, testing it just now, my hand moves all over the thing and is in a different position each time I let go and put it back from typing.
I don't understand how this is practical. A facial or retinal scan seems more reliable, can use your existing generic camera so no need for a custom mouse.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
...I have to bring my own mouse when breaking into the NSA headquarters?
But seriously. We are really talking about a device here that is eventually attached via USB, on an external plug to boot, to a computer. Erhmmmmm...
I guess it's time to dust off the presentation on how anything connected by USB isn't really a good idea if used as some kind of security device.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"It's not just how much pressure you exert on the mouse itself, but it's also the x-y coordinates of your position,"
Those are exactly the things I try to vary on purpose. ( Ever since I became dangerously close to develop Carpal Tunnel Syndrome)
It was a smart gun that inspired the smart mouse, which in turn inspired greenwow to make yet another stupid comment.
Okay, so it's a computer mouse that can *detect* a particular grip.
I was really wondering how researchers were able to get laboratory mice to grip guns. And why.
That last thing I want is the bad guy breaking into my home, taking my mouse out of my hand and using it against me!
Authentication should pass the brain-in-a-bottle-test: when they remove my body and only leave my brain, and supply me with a tty to my computer, I should still be abled to log in. All other methods are too inconvenient for me. Its not that I cant login anymore when my hand has been ripped off by a lasershark, as then I boot using a iso, and set my other hand, the problem is when I just simply dont want tp use that hand, perhaps because i hold a drink.
From the article: "The information needed for a retina scan, for instance, can be stolen from a doctor's office..."
And the information about how some VIP handles his mouse, can be stolen form either his mouse or the computer that gets biometric data from that mouse.
This is basically a password that cannot be changed. Just like fingerprints and retina scans. And all these things can be faked so easily. You don't bother with a false fingerprint or "a practiced mouse grip pattern". No, you replace the device (mouse or fingerprint reader) and fake the digital output from the authentication device. This is much easier.
A keylogger device steals keypresses - in the hope of finding a password. A similar logging device can log communication from a fancy mouse, or finger/retina scanners. After that, the signals can be faked with no need to actually grip a mouse or present a finger/eye.
And it won't matter if the mouse use some cryptographically safe protocol to communicate with the computer. When I plant my logging bug, I won't need to intercept mousecomputer communication. I intercept communication from the sensor system to the mouse electronics. That way, I get the "signature" before it is processed and possibly encrypted. Easy when you know electronics and programming - which enough people do. After that, the grip signature can be superimposed on my mouse movements when I abuse this tossers "safe computer". Possibly using remote control from a different location.
A hassle to set up, but only the first time. Similiar to how DeCSS took some work to pull off - but now it is everywhere. And it will be done for the first time when the incentive is there - such as a bank protecting their transaction computers with this. And then the hack goes on the black hat market . . .
Defense contractor Raytheon has received a patent for a mouse that has a biometric pressure grip.
...
The approach was inspired by similar pressure grips used in smart guns.
In other words, they are directly copying prior art without adding any innovation and is therefore not patentable.
when you pry it from my cold... Wait, what? Oh.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Oh, wait, that's only when gun nuts feel threatened...
Given the raging success of "smart guns", this should be a slam dunk for the company to make billions!
Computer owners/ potential hackers should have no complaints about this being required on all new computers and retrofitted to all older computers. You'll of course be required to wear a radio bracelet at all times to verify your identity, and it will feature ar kill switch which the government will have access to.
As others point out, people's grip changes all the time, just like a pen-grip and for that matter a signature.
Like the pen-grip and signature, any recognition-system will need to be flexible enough so there aren't very many false negatives while being resistant to being fooled.
My guess is that this will be best used in conjunction with other things, like "are you using the same computer you typically use," password/challenges, etc., but only if the combination results in at least as high of a true-positive and true-negative rate than any one method and better combined true-(positive or negative) results than any one method.
Smart Doorknob?
I'm normally totally against guns, but.. I have a question:
If my smart gun veryfies the ower by the grip, what happens when I'm in a stressed situation and need to shoot someone?
I bet that my grip will not be relaxed in the same was as targetpratics, or?
I can see how an exercise like this can benefit those against smart guns. Put that exact technology in a device we use everyday, such as our mouse, and track how often it fails or becomes temperamental. So, you had to readjust your grip after every 50 uses, and it flat out stopped working after 1000? Would you want that to be in the hands of an officer trying to save your life?