wrote in message ...
Blanco wrote:


wrote in message ...
Mike Barnes wrote:
wrote:
Blanco wrote:

Much more convenient to use for the master access
to the password manager or for your net banking
and tap payment systems than a PIN or master
password, particularly if there is a fallback to a master
password if the fingerprint sensor stops working.

Rather spoils the extra security if it has a fallback to a password
though.

But it's not extra security. It's extra convenience.

Really?

Its both. Much more convenient to put your finger on
the sensor than to fart around with a passwords and
much more secure too when using it to pay with your
phone etc.

Ah, I was forgetting the pervasiveness of smartphones. I have
virtually nothing on my smartphone that involves any sort of security.
Thus my smartphone is virtually unsecured, no PIN at turn on or
whatever, but the only thing anyone could steal (apart from the phone
itself) is five or ten pounds worth of top-up.

But a well implemented phone is vastly more secure than
any card or cash can ever be. Completely trivial to have it
wipe itself once it decides that it isnt the owner who has
it in its hands, it can send video of who is holding it and
send a full log of where the phone is physically etc.

And with transactions done with a card, its vastly
more secure to use a fingerprint than a PIN etc too.

The worst that might happen is that the phone decides
that its not the owner when it still is the owner, or the
owner forgets to turn that auto wipe off before handing
the phone to someone who can't currently use their own
phone or doesnt have one and has asked to borrow it.
All that means is that can't be used again until you get
the system reloaded after you have authorised that.
Just a nuisance in that unlikely situation.