Apple's Hackable Touch ID is still great - security analyst

By Rizza Sta. Ana

Sep 24, 2013 02:42 PM EDT

The buzz over a German hacker group who cracked Apple Inc's TouchID feature on its iPhone 5S may have simply boosted the tech giant credibility as an innovative company. In an article published online on PCMag.com's Security Watch with Neil Rubenking, a security analyst still declared Apple's fingerprint biometrics awesome by standard.

Earlier on, a seemingly innocent challenge by Nick DePetrillo on Twitter had lead Germany's venerable Chaos Computer Club to crack the technology used in Apple's TouchID. Depetrillo is a security researcher who would award "Starbug" from the German hacker club EUR100 or USD8,364.01 for submitting video proof on how to unlock the fingerprint biometrics of the Apple smartphone.

San Francisco-based Lookout Security researcher Mark Rogers, who was also able to hack TouchID and had published video proof, said, "It is a lengthy process that takes several hours and uses over a thousand dollars worth of equipment including a high resolution camera and laser printer."

Rogers was cited in the article that as almost 50% of iPhone users do not use a simple PIN to lock their phones, the convenience of TouchID encourages mobile phone owners to do so without the extra effort. However, Rogers also said that an improvement to iPhone mobile security would be a two-factor authentication. This means that TouchID plus a passcode would make a more efficient security. 

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