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Pentagon-Funded Project Will 'Solve' Cellphone Identity Verification Within Two Years (nextgov.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader Zorro quotes Nextgov:
The Defense Department is funding a project that officials say could revolutionize the way companies, federal agencies and the military itself verify that people are who they say they are and it could be available in most commercial smartphones within two years. The technology, which will be embedded in smartphones' hardware, will analyze a variety of identifiers that are unique to an individual, such as the hand pressure and wrist tension when the person holds a smartphone and the person's peculiar gait while walking, said Steve Wallace, technical director at the Defense Information Systems Agency.
Organizations that use the tool can combine those identifiers to give the phone holder a "risk score," Wallace said. If the risk score is low enough, the organization can presume the person is who she says she is and grant her access to sensitive files on the phone or on a connected computer or grant her access to a secure facility. If the score's too high, she'll be locked out... Another identifier that will likely be built into the chips is a GPS tracker that will store encrypted information about a person's movements, Wallace said. The verification tool would analyze historical information about a person's locations and major, recent anomalies would raise the person's risk score.
A technical director at the agency "declined to say which smartphone and chipmakers planned to participate in the project, but said the capability will be available 'in the vast majority of mobile devices.'"
Organizations that use the tool can combine those identifiers to give the phone holder a "risk score," Wallace said. If the risk score is low enough, the organization can presume the person is who she says she is and grant her access to sensitive files on the phone or on a connected computer or grant her access to a secure facility. If the score's too high, she'll be locked out... Another identifier that will likely be built into the chips is a GPS tracker that will store encrypted information about a person's movements, Wallace said. The verification tool would analyze historical information about a person's locations and major, recent anomalies would raise the person's risk score.
A technical director at the agency "declined to say which smartphone and chipmakers planned to participate in the project, but said the capability will be available 'in the vast majority of mobile devices.'"
Just admit that with enough pieces of information it's all "personally identifying".
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
Eventually it will come down to Google being forced to demand that these features are in phones, in order to license the Android mark and access to Google Play.
In the extension this means Qualcomm and other American manufacturers will get to take in heavy licensing fees, because it will all be patented.
It's a drive to both sell more American products and collect more information on people at the same time.
One scary aspect of this is that the data will obviously be collectable to U.S. government and manufacturers. Three-letter agencies could literally replay the signals and have a water-proof case against anyone, by claiming the data shows that "they were there".
Drain the swamp;
I have arthritis. I can't apply consistent pressure. Changes day to day. Used to have trouble signing for credit card purchases.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Sure it will identify people. However, it will also be hackable (Spectre, anyone) and then the black hats will have unassailable proof they are who they are not.
Seriously, who ever proposed this is either a black hat or has not the least idea about security.
Disclosure: I rarely wear hats.
My smartphone right now is a Virgin Mobile. If this becomes a thing I'll have to start shopping for a Tracphone.
... will be available in the vast majority of mobile devices
... will be mandated for every phone sold in North America
Eventually, owning and carrying a smartphone will be compulsory - it will serve as your government ID and will sub for driver's licence, passport, Social Insurance / Social Security card, health card, etc. There will be no rooting, no disabling of location services, no turning off mobile data and WiFi. 'Airplane Mode' will be turned off and on automatically - there will be a separate always-on low-power RF transceiver specifically for that purpose. If you are allowed to turn your phone off, it won't be fully off - it will be recording audio all the time. Letting your battery die without a damned good excuse will be a criminal offence. As will putting your phone in a Faraday cage.
Part of me kinda thinks I'm just trolling here - but the bigger part is afraid that much of what I've outlined above may really come to pass. After all, if I could go back to 1980 and tell my then-self what happens in the world after 2000, that earlier self would be totally incredulous.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
State provided identification services combined with mass surveillance.
What could possibly go wrong?
Google: By your grip you're getting ready to throw your phone. Is there anything I can hel.....CRASH!
Now when do they solve the robo-caller identity verification problem?
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
So I guess once your risk score exceeds the "annoys POTUS"-level, the included guidance beacon for the upcoming drone strike is activated?
911 emergency, how can we help you?
*shaking* I've been in a car accident and am pretty badly hurt, can you send help?
Sir, I'm not sure who you are but placing a false call to 911 is a crime *click*
Hello? Hello?
Hmm?
"...presume the person is who she says she is and grant her access..."
Does it only work for women? Or is this just a feminist article.
For anyone with any sense of paranoia is likely to try to develop some arthritis like this. In fact, it'll have also include how we walk.. Maybe it'll be voice characteristics, too.
I used to think people walking around talking to invisible others was weird. I discovered it's this new thing called a "bluetooth" earpiece. Now I image we'll see people holding their phones in weird ways, walking, and talking in funny ways... It'll be interesting.
The next James Bond movie will need its villains to do the same while on phones. Skip around, spin, toss the phone in the air and catch it with the other hand--anything you haven't done before.. You might as well make it a musical.
n/t
So my smartphone would send data about my gait, my gesture characteristics, etc. to someplace I don't control?
Guess that's why I don't have any smartphone.
It appears to take a while to build the history required for the identity verification purposes, yet that verification is used for only a very short time. If someone else has my smartphone for a short time, they could pose as me based upon the history retained in the smartphone. imo, in order to be a secure verification, the timeline for building the history needs to be closer to the timeline of usage.
So if by chance you are having a bad day with external stress factors changing your daily rutine and behavior, you get locked out? I am sure that will help making an already bad day worse..
is this a comment made by a human? i seriously think half of these neurotic posts are made by bots. a big public experiment, how can computers alter the nations mood, entice violence and then feelings of community, maybe even a certain orange skinned political movement could have been launched from a few bots on twitter, facebook, etc... just stirring the pot and molding the views of the people to get what the gov't really wanted./... think about it.
To disable or remove this chip thanks
I am going back to smoke signals. Technology is out of control.
In China, use an American phone.
In the US, use a Chinese phone.
And pray that it isn't a double spy phone.
P.S.: There are dopant-level hardware trojans now: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2018/03/adding_backdoor.html
That is their entire point.
It's warfare after all!
Aka usually professional mass-murder.
So a little black-hatting is nothing, compared to what is daily business in their world.
A technical director at the agency "declined to say which smartphone and chipmakers planned to participate in the project
Very wise. It sounds like an ideal way to completely kill-off the sales of any manufacturer who gives in and installs this.
Apart from all the drawbacks listed, any phone that did this would essentially be spying on its user. Not just with trying to identify the user, but with the record of encrypted (yeah .... right) positioning data to know where that person had been.
The only people I can see who would ever use one of these would be government employees and I doubt that they would do so freely.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Or Russians ;)
If I hand my phone to a friend?
Or if I leave my phone on the table all day?
I rarely actually use my phone while walking.
So if I go on a weekend bender in Vegas I can't call a cab.
This is illegal.
All of my calls are made using speakerphone mode, while the phone rests on a phonograph turntable. Mostly I run it at 33 1/3 RPM. If I don't like you, you get 'the 78 RPM' treatment.
National ID + citizen location = government dream
Citizens voluntarily tagging themselves = government wet dream
If I'm in the car, it's hands free via the car radio. If I'm not in the car, I have borg implant (BT headset).
I remember seeing Apple's ppl bending over to US congress in a hearing some time ago, on the question about what Apple can do for the government, and Apple's representative looked like he had done something wrong and seemed to be willing to do anything at all to help.
Why doesn't the government just shove a leash up our asses.
Or Norks!!!
It's none of your fucking business who I am. Especially since scam artist and telemarketers, investigators and bill collectors all like to hide their identity. It's only fair that I should also.
I was really hoping this would be about reducing the amount of spoofed/spam calls everyone gets.
According to the article, the army currently can't even get their own fucking cloud computing system to function beyond "not losing data" (its too slow to run on apps), and the purported proposed ID system will be implemented by phone vendors who currently cant keep the phones they now sell fucking current with updates? Lol ...so, when pigs fly.