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Swallowing Your Password

Posted by samzenpus on from the eat-and-login dept.

HughPickens.com writes: Amir Mizroch reports at the WSJ that a PayPal executive who works with engineers and developers to find and test new technologies, says that embeddable, injectable, and ingestible devices are the next wave in identification for mobile payments and other sensitive online interactions. Jonathon Leblanc says that identification of people will shift from "antiquated" external body methods like fingerprints, toward internal body functions like heartbeat and vein recognition, where embedded and ingestible devices will allow "natural body identification." Ingestible devices could be powered by stomach acid, which will run their batteries and could detect glucose levels and other unique internal features can use a person's body as a way to identify them and beam that data out. Leblanc made his remarks during a presentation called Kill all Passwords that he's recently started giving at various tech conferences in the U.S. and Europe, arguing that technology has taken a huge leap forward to "true integration with the human body." But the idea has its skeptics. What could possibly go wrong with a little implanted device that reads your vein patterns or your heart's unique activity or blood glucose levels writes AJ Vicens? "Wouldn't an insurance company love to use that information to decide that you had one too many donuts—so it won't be covering that bypass surgery after all?"

6 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Silly by Anrego · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem with this, and biometrics in general, is that there is only one you.

    You can't revoke your "vein pattern" any more than you can revoke your fingerprint. Using your same biometric information for everything has the same pitfalls as using the same password for everything, and you are just one sketchy gas station away from someone getting a copy.

    If you are going to implant something, why not implant a challenge/response system with a public/private key and strong cryptography, like you know, we've been doing on the internet with a good amount of success. A random very large number is just as good as any biometric information, and at least you can change it.

    1. Re:Silly by rubycodez · · Score: 4, Informative

      great till the algorithm is cracked and everyone on earth needs a new implant in the next hour

    2. Re:Silly by msauve · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And what happens when you die, and the executor of your estate can't get access to your records and accounts? Sure, there's legal authority, but good luck making things happen smoothly or timely.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  2. Gives new meaning by swamp+boy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gives new meaning to "I can't find my password in all this shit"

  3. When my daughter wants to get into my iPhone... by idji · · Score: 4, Interesting

    She just grabs it from the table and slowly creeps up behind me and pushes it gently onto my thumb, and then runs away with an unlocked phone when i notice it...
    The value of a password is that it is locked away in MY BRAIN until I choose to use it. These are not passwords, and neither is the button on an iPhone.

  4. Re:Probably not the approach I'd have taken by monkeyzoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    When I shit the thing out, do I have to eat it again?