Nope. The one you are referring to on the iPaqs is actually a piece of hardware just above the D-Pad. I've tried it out, and in my opinion it's crap. Doesn't add much security...well, not as high security as fingerprint recognition should offer. It's more or less just a "toyish coolness factor" feature that HP added.
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IIRC, while the fingerprint scanner on the Ipaq 5450 was indeed a nifty toy, it has been much improved on the 5550, as it features better recognition, and (don't quote me on this, though) a security mecanism that will wipe out all data (not the memory cards, though) if recognition is not successful after a given number of tries.
Pure geek-factor. In real life I'd argue that it adds very little security value at all. If anything it's probably more likely to decrease security by leaving an uneducated user with a incorrect heightened sense of security.
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in general aren't bio-informatics (isn't that what it's called?) pretty good? I thought that thumb and iris scanning was the new in thing. Is it just this scanner in particular is bunk?
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John Wilker
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But what extra protection does this fingerprint scanner actually provide?
All it does is replace the password.
Information in ROM (Built in Storage) is still as vulnerable with or without the finger print scanner.
Information on storage cards is still equally vulnerable.
Using a finger print scanner is more secure for stuff in main memory than using a password but how much more secure??
A 4 digit numeric password has 10,000 combinations. What happens if you guess the wrong one? You start getting longer and longer timeouts between attemps.
Depending on the character set a 10 digit alphanumber password might have 97,656,250,000,000,000 combinations.
Which is easier. Cutting off someone's finger (or faking it, see Charlies Angels :) ) or going through billions of combinations.
So biometrics = good. Only if the implementation is also good.
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gotcha. Well I don't use the password becuase it's cumbersome but it swiping my thumb to get access to the ax I would be down with that. In the end there's nothing top secret on it. Though I would like to keep casual prying eyes at bay.
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John Wilker
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Very true. What I would like to know is if the scanner is accessible via APIs? So can 3rd party apps use it? There would certainly be a decent amount of potential there.
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yeah APIs would make a big impact. Then everyone's app could implement it (making it much more mainstream)
like you said it's not super secure but then again all it really protects from is boot up. cards are removable. and the storage can be yanked out I suppose.
What's this thing look like? built into the unit?
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John Wilker
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Originally posted by Howard2k I use a 4 digit numeric. I agree, it would be cool, but I'm opposed to anything that makes something seem more secure when in reality it's not.
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