Filed under: Peripherals, Security
Secure your Mac: Eikon biometric security
TUAW has lately been trying to help you Secure Your Mac, and while a few options have been available, biometric security is one area in which the Mac has seemed to lag behind the Windows side. Now UPEK has released a preview of the Mac version of their Eikon Digital Privacy Manager. The software allows you to use the Eikon scanner to login to your account, control your Keychain, switch users, or lock down your Mac. The Eikon scanner is a USB device which costs about $40 and only comes with Windows software. Once you have the scanner however, you can download the Mac Protector Suite Preview for free from UPEK. If security is a serious concern and passwords are getting tedious then a biometric solution like this one looks increasingly cost effective.
[via OhGizmo]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DigitalFury said 5:21PM on 9-25-2007
"has seemed to lag" should be "has gone nowhere", since Apple don't seemed to know what it is.
Biometrics is one thing I miss a lot on my new MacBook Pro coming from a Sony Vaio, along perhaps with the lack of docking station support. It's very useful when you have to get out of a locked screen saver or just log in, with people around you that have wandering eyes.
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Mikek said 5:42PM on 9-25-2007
MythBusters proved biometrics are easily defeated by lifting a fingerprint. Fingerprints probably already exists on your Mac.
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Johnny said 5:44PM on 9-25-2007
The Sony Puppy has been around for a long time. The only problem I have is that there is no SDK for the Mac, so no way to use it for anything other than that provided by the software. Especially, I'd like a biometric plug-in for FileMaker. Maybe this one will provide more support on the Mac.
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Christopher said 5:52PM on 9-25-2007
@ Mikek - this is true on a certain type of readers. Since then, newer models have come out, which actually look for other signs of a live finger (temperature, blood vessels changing size when the heart beats, etc.) - Also, the strip version (where you slide your finger across it) was never defeated in their segment - only the photo version where you just place your finger on it and it takes a snapshot. This strip version is the version referenced to in this article. I'd say it was just as secure as your home door lock, if not a bit more (meaning, yeah I'd not use it for national security, but it will get the job done for home/office use).
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DigitalFury said 6:06PM on 9-25-2007
@Christopher actually I have seen (been in) many "sensible" buildings, where access is not possible without combinations of biometrics (e.g. finger + hand shape). All-in-all it is much more secured than traditional keyboard based passwords, but the real deal is to defeat shoulder surfing, which is the greatest threat.
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Mo said 6:18PM on 9-25-2007
If biometric security is so important to you, you won't be entrusting everything to a piece of software that you can't (and nobody whose opinion can trust can) examine to verify.
The magic sauce of a biometric scanner must surely be in the hardware, not the software: the specs need to be open, and the drivers need to be open (not necessarily modifiable, but it makes bugfixes much harder if they're not), so that they can be independently examined.
For most real-world applications, biometrics aren't much anything to do with any additional levels of security, just convenience: for that, they work, and they work well, but people should be aware of what the score is.
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Todd@UPEK said 12:43AM on 9-26-2007
Christopher is right, the technology used in the Eikon fingerprint reader is very different than what was defeated in the MythBusters episode. Today’s readers are much more difficult to defeat due to a number of technology advances. I should also note that the Eikon reader contains a security microprocessor where biometric matching and fingerprint template storage is done in hardware, therefore eliminating risks associated with performing these types of operations on the host computer CPU. The Protector Suite for Mac software is implemented as a Mac OS authentication plug-in, applications that utilize the standard Mac authentication services APIs will therefore also support biometric authentication with the Eikon.
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Matt B said 4:52AM on 9-27-2007
I wonder if the software work with other USB fingerprint scanners that use the same type od mechanism?
I haven't been able to find the Eikon device for sale in the UK yet. Amazon UK don't stock the item, and the only link I've found so far is for the Amazon US store.
Any feedback regarding success with other devices or UK availability would be appriecated.
Thanks!
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PeteC said 5:42PM on 11-01-2007
Yeah, I've also been trying to find it in the UK to no avail, hopefully amazon uk will follow suit and sell it since the US one does. Any UK availability info also appreciated.
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Richard Olpin said 7:04AM on 11-11-2007
I'm trying to source one of these in the UK too, but no luck so far. I've emailed Eikon to ask but no reply so far.
My current plan is to ask a friend in the US to get me one and ship it over.
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