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Password strength and account security have been a hot topic for a long time, as it always seems like those making the security are one step behind those breaking it. Now though, Motorola is proposing a jump in an entirely different direction – bio-tattoos.
Discussed by the head of the mobile technology firm, at the D11 conference yesterday, the tattoos contain flexible electronic circuits, that can bend and stretch to twice their original size without trouble. Ultimately though, they're only around the size of a postage stamp.
While it'll be some years yet before this flexible circuitry could potentially see real usage in a consumer market, the Motorola chief did say that it had been tested as an authentication system for mobile phones and that it does work quite well.
It sort of looks like when you leave a plaster on too long. Source: IC10 via Telegraph.
Also discussing the technology was Regina Dugan, former head of the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (try saying that a few times fast). She said that: “Authentication is irritating. In fact its so irritating only about half the people do it, despite the fact there is a lot of information about you on your smartphone, which makes you far more prone to identity theft.”
She has a point too. We all store phone numbers, pictures, perhaps even banking details on our phones and yet how many of us secure it? Sure a pin-code might be a nice basic layer of protection, but that only really stops someone from having a quick look while you're away from the handset. If it's stolen, that's not going to protect your data for long.
KitGuru Says: What do you guys think of alternate authentication systems? And do you make use of a pin code or other system on your handset at the moment?
A nice idea on paper. I could see an increase in muggers carrying knives and acquiring authentication by cutting the tattoo off. 😛
I think I’d rather have some kind of fingerprint lock that doesn’t show as a lock, so it looks like the phone is just frozen. After 3 attempts at getting through, a micro-explosive device would destroy the phone’s circuitry and data storage.
They’ll come back with either a scanner? or a knife to cut the circuit.
My best authentication idea would be: fingerprint scanner with pulse monitor (for life detection) and a neural analyzer
Perhaps these geniuses are unaware of the fact that ID tatoos were used by the Nazis. Do they really want to emulate the facists?
It does seem a little bit creepy? I’m not exactly a luddite (reading a tech news website here), but it does seem a little bit Orwellian, with the notion that you can only use a phone with a chip implanted in your skin, not saying its a bad idea, just don’t personally like the idea of the Big Brother chip implant.