Future iPhones Could Record, Fingerprints & Photos of Thieves

Apple is reportedly working on a new anti-theft measure which will record the fingerprints and snap photos of a phone-thief.

Patent filed by Apple

An application for a patent filed by Apple details this security mechanism. According to the patent, the mechanism will be incorporated in future iPhone and iPad devices. The patent details a trigger mechanism which will cause the phone to record the biometric information of whoever is using the phone at the triggered moment via the Touch ID button.

How it could work

These trigger conditions could be either when someone is trying to bypass the security of the phone or trying to gain unauthorized access to the phone via a third party device.

Information recorded by the phone can be either one or multiple fingerprints. It can also be one or more photographs of the thief, video recording of the thief, audio of the surrounding environment etc. The patent details:

The computing device may then provide the stored biometric information for identification of one or more unauthorized users

Of course, it’s not as easy as just setting up simple triggers in iOS and that’s that. There are some technical problems with implementing this system.

Problems with the system

Firstly, Touch ID requires you to press your finger several times on to the sensor for it to register it. The fingerprint sensor can only recognise a part of the fingerprint in one go. What’s more, you need to press your finger on it in multiple angles as well. The thief wouldn’t just press his finger on the home button repeatedly in an attempt to unlock the device.

This can be fixed in the future if Apple implements better fingerprint sensors and an improved Touch ID system. Next, a covert way of taking photos or recording video needs to be implemented. This won’t be much of a problem considering that there are already apps like Lookout which do that.

Legal and Privacy Issues

It also raises privacy and security concerns about the new system. If your iPhone can snap photos and record and save a thief’s fingerprints in the company’s database, it is recording yours as well. What’s there to say if the company stores your info on their servers as well?

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has used the company’s record on privacy and its stance on not storing any unencrypted information to market Apple products and services. However, limitations in these new anti-theft measures means that these features wouldn’t make it into the iPhones and other igadgets any time soon

Yahoo Hacked ! Hackers Selling 200 Million Record on Dark Web

Hardly a day goes without headlines about any significant data breach. In the past few months, over 1 Billion account credentials from popular social network sites, including LinkedIn, Tumblr, MySpace and VK.com were exposed on the Internet.

Now, the same hacker who was responsible for selling data dumps for LinkedIn, MySpace, Tumblr and VK.com is now selling what is said to be the login information of 200 Million Yahoo! users on the Dark Web.

200 Million Yahoo! Logins for 3 BTC

The hacker, who goes by the pseudonym "Peace" or "peace_of_mind," has uploaded 200 Million Yahoo! credentials up for sale on an underground marketplace called The Real Deal for 3 Bitcoins (US$1,824).

Yahoo! admitted the company was "aware" of the potential leak, but did not confirm the authenticity of the data.

The leaked database includes usernames, MD5-hashed passwords and date of births from 200 Million Yahoo! Users. In some cases, there is also the backup email addresses used for the account, country of origin, as well as the ZIP codes for United States users.

Easily Crackable Passwords

Since the passwords are MD5-encrypted, hackers could easily decrypt them using an MD5 decrypter available online, making Yahoo! users open to hackers.

In a brief description, Peace says the Yahoo! database "most likely" comes from 2012, the same year when Marissa Mayer became Yahoo's CEO.

Just last week, Verizon acquired Yahoo! for $4.8 Billion. So, the hacker decided to monetize the stolen user accounts before the data lose its value.

When reached out, the company said in a statement:

"We are committed to protecting the security of our users' information and we take such claim very seriously. Our security team is working to determine the facts...we always encourage our users to create strong passwords, or give up passwords altogether by using Yahoo Account Key, and use different passwords for different platforms."

Use Password Managers to Secure Your Online Accounts

Although the company has not confirmed the breach, users are still advised to change their passwords (and keep a longer and stronger one using a good password manager) and enable two-factor authentication for online accounts immediately, especially if you are using the same password for multiple websites.

You can also adopt a good password manager that allows you to create complex passwords for different sites as well as remember them for you.

We have listed some best password managers here that could help you understand the importance of password manager and help you choose a suitable one, according to your requirement.