let the game begun!!

It is amazing how quickly our friends on other side has caught up with Apple's coolest newest user-friendliest feature in their latest and greatest iPhone yet...

I think all these things are well known, and assuming that even password protection must be breakable by intelligent friends. No one can deny that any system can be hacked. However, there has to be balance between usability and security requirements. I think, iPhone 5S users will decide on their own. Off-course, all these news do make significant impact on user's choices, still, knowing Apple, I know for sure that most of the users will use this cool feature which will make life so much easier.. Especially any one using enterprise emails on iPhone, where they put stringent requirement on password and locking time.


Hackers beat iPhone fingerprint

German group finds way around biometric sensor

By Frank Jordans

Associated Press

BERLIN — The fingerprint- based security system used to unlock Apple’s latest iPhone can be bypassed using a household printer and some wood glue, a German hacking group has claimed. A spokesman for the Chaos Computer Club said the group managed to fool the biometric sensor in the iPhone 5s over the weekend by creating an artificial copy of a genuine fingerprint.

“It was surprisingly easy,” Dirk Engling told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday, a day after the group announced the exploit on its website. A member of the Chaos Computer Club going by the pseudonym Starbug took a high-resolution photograph of a fingerprint left on a glass surface, printed it onto a transparent sheet and smeared the pattern with liquid latex or wood glue. Once the glue set, it could be peeled off and placed on another finger to mimic the genuine print, Engling said. “We used this method 10 years ago and didn’t have to change much for the iPhone,” he said. “The hardest bit was getting hold of one of those new iPhones because they are chronically sold out.”

Engling said the Chaos Computer Club, which has a long history of finding security flaws in soft- and hardware, documented the procedure with several videos so independent experts could verify it.

David Emm, a senior security researcher at Kaspersky Labs, said the German group’s claims exposed the flip side of biometric security systems designed to replace passwords or PIN numbers commonly used nowadays.

“If my passcode becomes compromised, I can simply replace it with a new one — hopefully one that’s more secure. But I can’t change my fingerprint — it’s part of what I am and so I’m stuck with it,” Emm said.

Engling suggested that Apple could have made its fingerprint system more secure, but that this might have caused problems for users if they didn’t swipe their finger across the miniature scanner properly and thus got locked out of the device after repeated failed attempts.

“Apple had to strike a balance between security and user-friendliness,” he said.

Apple didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

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ANDY WONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The iPhone 5s lets a user configure the device for fingerprint recognition as a security check. A German group says it used wood glue to beat the technology.

Proces Security break-ins?

Very interesting.. We normally focus only on device level security.. Now this is another example that human and process level security is equally important and should be taken equally seriously if not more. Especially, in case of Apple ID which is now almost equivalent to your almost all digital life and even includes credit card as a bonus.

This means that we have to take our security codes and question/answers for manual verifications also equally seriously. It is very much clear that call center agents need more process and clarity to verify individuals. Can't apple use Siri to add voice based recognition? or even better, ask users to submit their video snippets thru face time and as part of security verification automatically start iPhone/iPad's face time, record users visuals and match it reference face time video. further extending this.. add simple facetime contact and use it for all customer service options.

Nothing is complete security and if someone wants, they can come up and circumvent process to gain access to your data or your digital life.. it is just that, how important you are for them or how lucky or unlucky you are..



Apple tightens security in wake of user’s hack

Journalist’s data was stolen, all his accounts lost

By Jeremy C. Owens

jowens@mercurynews.com 

Apple will alter its system for allowing users to change the password to their account after a hacker managed to gain access to a journalist’s Apple account and wreak havoc on his digital life.

The Cupertino tech giant announced the change Wednesday, five days after well-known tech journalist Mat Honan posted a blog explaining that a hacker had gained access to his AppleID using the final four numbers of his credit card account, which he had gleaned from Amazon. An Apple spokeswoman said the company would temporarily block password changes through over-the-phone customer support, and strengthen the system when it comes back online.

The hacker managed to remotely erase all of Honan’s content fromhis iPad, iPhone and MacBook, as well as gain access to Honan’s Gmail account, his Twitter account and the account of his former employer, Gizmodo.“In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed,” Honan said in a follow-up report for his current employer, Wired. The hacker was able to use a partial credit card number visible through Amazon to persuade Apple customer support to change the password on Honan’s AppleID account to one only the hacker — pretending to be Honan on the phone — knew.

“What happened to me exposes vital security flaws in several customer service systems, most notably Apple’s and Amazon’s,” Honan wrote in the Wired piece, adding, “The very four digits that Amazon considers unimportant enough to display in the clear on the web are precisely the same ones that Apple considers secure enough to perform identity verification.” Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said Wednesday that the company has “temporarily suspended the ability to reset AppleID passwords over the phone.” “We’re asking customers who need to reset their password to continue to use our online iForgot system,” Kerris added. “When we resume over-the-phone password resets, customers will be required to provide even stronger identify verification to reset their password.”

Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/ mercbizbreak.

Is this going to be part of iPhone5?

Seems interesting technology.. though nothing new as we have seen it in many laptops and some Android phones.. I am sure Apple will come up with something much more beyond than security aspect of it.. This article mentions about mobile payment.. which is going to be another big round of new technology wars in mobile space.

Question is.. will it be part of iPhone 5 already or it will take some time for them to integrate it. I am sure they must be working on it for some time and must already have some kind of OEM deal already.. if they are going to use in iPhone5.. otherwise we will have to wait for iPhone 5S or something like that to see this in effect.

However, Samsung will have to find another partner to provide this service.. and also get ready to be hit by Apple's patent suit in this area. I am sure Authen-Tec must have some interesting patents in fingerprinting security area..

$356 MILLION DEAL

Apple buying fingerprint sensor maker

Purchase of AuthenTec may help bring mobile pay market to the U.S.

By Sinead Carew and Himank Sharma

Reuters

Apple will buy fingerprint sensor technology developer Authen-Tec for about $356 million, in a deal that could put its iPhone at the center of the emerging mobile payments market.

Apple is paying $8 a share, a 58 percent premium, for Melbourne, Fla.-based AuthenTec, which counts South Korean mobile device maker Samsung Electronics among its big customers.

AuthenTec — which makes fingerprint sensor chips used in personal computers and mobile devices — is one of the very few public companies that has been acquired by Apple, a company that rarely does acquisitions and tends to buy mostly startups when looking for cutting-edge technology.

Shares of AuthenTec surged $3.35, or 66 percent, to $8.42 on Nasdaq in Friday’s trading. Apple stock was up $10.28 at $585.16.

AuthenTec, which was spun off from Harris Semiconductor in 1998 and went public in 2007, provides mobile security software licenses to companies like Samsung, and fingerprint sensor technology to computer makers such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell.

Its fingerprint technology, which is also used in mobile phones in Japan for authentication of mobile payments, could help Apple bring those services to markets such as the United States, where mobile wallet services have been slow to catch on.

Some analysts expect the next version of the iPhone to include some form of mobile payments technology. 

An Apple spokesman declined to comment on how Apple plans to use Authen-Tec’s technology. 

While companies such as Google already have mobile payments offerings, such services are not widely used in the United States and have been dogged by security concerns. 

“To have security behind it would give people peace of mind. It could be a major differentiator for them,” said Dougherty & Co. analyst Charlie Anderson, who noted that fingerprints are more secure than passwords because they cannot be copied or stolen. Anderson said Apple was buying a rich portfolio of patents from AuthenTec that could help it dominate mobile payments. 

Mobile wallet users will want to be sure their money is safe and would like something more secure and easier to use than passwords that have to be typed in, analysts said. 

“If you’re storing credit card information in your phone for mobile payments, it would be more secure if it has fingerprint authentication rather than just a password protection,” BWS Financial analyst Khorsand Hamed said. 

Anderson said Apple may continue to offer Authen-Tec’s existing products to its rivals to help gain regulatory approval but it may keep future developments for its own products. 

BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis said AuthenTec technology could potentially help Apple combat problems such as theft of its more portable products such as iPhones. 

“If they could have a way where they could tie the phone to a user more tightly, that would make sense for them,” he said. 

He described the price tag for AuthenTec as a drop in the bucket of Apple’s cash pile of $117.2 billion, and noted the company had not been as acquisitive as some other technology businesses. 

“We’ll see if it’s a one-off or if Tim Cook will start to level his cash balance and acquire talent,” Gillis said, referring to Apple’s chief executive. 

AuthenTec, which also counts Lenovo and Fujitsu as customers, has annual revenue of about $70 million. 

Now this can really spur growth in Smart Homes!!!

These type of service will totally make sense when it comes to Smart homes which includes Smart Security and Smart Grid connectivity. Also, it will further eliminate POT line (Plain Old Telephone... I guess) an history museum part.

Everything is great about it. This is the way to go. Just one concern.. it will make service providers almost GOD like status. Entire home will be dependent on them. In case of failure in broadband pipe everything goes back to stone age!!! I am sure they will come up with back plan by starting wireless Service in cities and use them as back up. I guess, even now you can get it if you are ready to pay 10-20$ extra each month.

Currently these type of services are there in market but offered by multiple vendors in bits and pieces... I think Comcast type roll-out will make it easier to integrate and manage in a single console. It will be tough to say no to such things when they are rolled out!!

Slowly, these type of services will become part of the offerings from service providers like Comacast, ATT etc.. Sooner or later, their modems/devices will be capable of offering additional service and route videos and other smart information to/from the house to/from their data center.

But will you like your home to be monitored by big brother like Comcast.. Can't government or any other body with influence also sneak peak in your house anytime? What if hackers hack into Comcast system and enable/disable devices when you are not at home. Theoretically, if someone hacks into this system, and if they are able to broadcast command to turn on AC or something like that at once in multiple houses, they can bring down grid in few seconds. Remember, starting current requirement of all ACs and similar devices is at least 3-4 times normal run time requirement. So if all the devices are remotely controlled and someone with evil intensions is able to hack into Service Provider like Comcast who controls tens of thousands of homes in a particular area, they can bring down local grid or blow transformer (that will be too much as relay/Circuit-Breakers will act, unless, they hack into that as well).

I think I am thinking too much negative.. may be wine effect ;-) So I need to just shut down this blog and publish it...

Cheers!!

KEEPING AN EYE ON SECURITY, ENERGY

Comcast offers ‘smart home’ service

Broadband provider gets into full home monitoring

By Troy Wolverton

twolverton@mercurynews.com 

Broadband provider Comcast is hoping to be your gateway to the “smart home” of the future.

On Friday, the company will begin offering security and home monitoring services to Bay Area customers of its Internet service. Such smart home technologies would alert consumers if someone broke into their house, allow them to adjust their thermostat and turn lights in their house on and off while away from home, and remotely view video taken from cameras placed in and around their home.

Consumers could also configure the system to set the alarm automatically at certain times of night or a front-door camera to record video whenever someone opens the door.

“We think it’s going to become more the norm than the exception to have a smart home,” said Mitch Bowling, Comcast’s senior vice president and general manager of new businesses.

The service, which Comcast already offers in about half of its markets nationwide, will be available starting Friday in areas served by Comcast in the East Bay and North Bay. The company plans to begin offering the service in the South Bay, the Peninsula and San Francisco by the end of April, Bowling said.

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COMCAST PHOTOS

Comcast is installing in-home control panels, above, and providing a realtime link on customers’ smartphones.

The service is being rolled out in some parts of the Bay Area beginning Friday. 

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Comcast will charge a $40 monthly fee for the service, which will include 24-hour security monitoring and remote access to lighting and thermostat controls. The company will charge customers who want to record and view video feeds from their home an additional $5-a-month fee. Comcast is requiring customers of the service to sign a three-year contract. 

To promote the service, Comcast is offering free installation of the related equipment to customers who sign up before the end of May. After that, the company will charge $200 for standard installation. In both cases, the company charges extra to install cameras and additional sensors. 

The service includes a tablet- like touch-screen controller to which Comcast plans to add additional features. In addition to arming the security system and turning on lights, the device will soon allow customers to check their Comcast email, program a DVR or preview on-demand movies, Bowling said. 

Long a dream of futurists, the smart home has until recently been reserved for technophiles who configured home automation systems on their own and high-end consumers who paid someone else to do it. 

However, Comcast is one of a growing number of mainstream companies that have been trying to bring smart home services to a mass audience. In recent years, home security companies such as ADT and Vivent have begun to offer home automation and home control services. Comcast’s broadband rival Verizon has its own smart home offerings, and AT&T has one in the works. Meanwhile, Nexia, a sister company to lock maker Schlage and airconditioning unit manufacturer Trane, has come out with a line of relatively lowcost home automation and control products. 

The companies that stand the best chance of popularizing home automation are the security companies, said Jonathan Gaw, a research manager at tech consulting firm IDC who focuses on the connected home. Right now, the smart home services that consumers are most interested in are related to security and monitoring, rather than energy management or controlling appliances, he said. 

What’s more, smart home services will probably require extensive and perhaps multiple visits to consumers’ homes to assess their needs and install sensors and controllers, Gaw said. Broadband providers such as Comcast may not be in a position to deliver that kind of handson interaction because they have spent years trying to minimize the need to visit consumers’ homes and the amount of time they spend once there, he added. 

“This is not something that I would expect mainstream consumers to do on their own, which means that somebody’s going to have help them do it,” Gaw said. 

Contact Troy Wolverton at 408-840-4285. Follow him at Twitter.com/troywolv. 

Local Government Crisis in America

It is amazing to see almost zero coverage in media about crisis in local / small governments in US. There is big crisis looming in every corner of US. It includes from big states like California to small city / county governments. I think these state and small governments employ around 8 Million people in US. This is excluding Education and Hospital jobs. This itself is more than two third of total government jobs.

So far these governments bucked recession as they were funded by Federal Government under stimulus programs. As Federal government didn't wanted these local governments also to start doing layoffs when rest of private sector America is doing it. They funded them with cash. Now, with economy coming back to track and stimulus funds vaporizing away, these governments are still facing huge deficits, as tax receipts haven't improved. As a result they are coming up different ways to cut costs. Primarily laying off their employees, cutting down on services and increasing cost of services where possible.. Biggest component is cutting down number of employees.

Will it fix their problem? I think that is going to worsen the problem. As all of these governments have very simple rule of laying off their employees... Performance.. are you kidding!!! that is probably last thing.. Only thing they have in consideration is Seniority.. So it is LIFO... Last In First Out.. Essentially they are getting rid of their so called least skilled and young man power.. Is it true.. I can't say..

Another of their biggest problem is unrealistic Pension plan.. Apparently, if you work 15-20 years with them and you decide to retire you will be getting almost 90% of your pre-retirement income.. What a great moronic plan.. I strongly believe that all these governments should file for bankruptcy and get rid of all these moronic labor contracts and start with clean slate. The kind of obligations these governments have is amazing. Whatever they do in their books to juggle it, ultimately it will come back to them.

Even though I am not republican fan, I do strongly support Wisconsin governor with his plans to get rid of unions for state workers or so called collective bargaining. This collective bargaining should be made synonym of Black-mailing. We need some very fundamental changes in Government sector jobs in US. It needs to run the way decent performing private sector companies run their business. Only performance is your job security.. Only performance is your growth potential... Only performance is your higher rate of income and thus savings in your retirement account..

After all this mess, if we don't fix it we will never fix it. There is decent public support for it.. In case of Wisconsin, their masses has given very clear mandate to their Governor to get rid of their bureaucrats.