Fingerprint scanner on Galaxy S5 and iPhone 5S are ‘gimmicks’

It somehow seems true that the fingerprint scanners embedded on the flagship phones from Apple and Samsung (the iPhone 5S and the Galaxy S5) are mere gimmicks and simply there for grace.

Recently, we did hear about the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone and Galaxy dvices being easily hacked by experts. The ease of hacking is because a fingerprint can be replicated easily today. All needed is a left-behind print on your bar glass or your phone’s display screen and a few forensics lab tools. Once the fingerprint is replicated with a mould, it can be used against you.

In an interview with computer science Professor Willy Susilo of the University of Wollongong, he told The Sydney Morning Herald that fingerprint scanners were a "gimmick" and iris, and vein scanners are likely to trump them. "Using our fingerprint is not a secure way to do [authentication]," Professor Susilo said. "It's just like a gimmick." One of the main benefits of vein and iris scanning is that you don't tend to leave behind iris or vein prints, he said.

Vein scanners seem to be more secure than retina scans (retina scanning can lead to cancers, according to a research) since you simply cannot leave behind any trace of your veins. Furthermore, veins are almost impossible to be replicated (at least for now).

Fingerprint scanners are cheap to manufacture and hence will continue being implemented in devices. Vein scanners are a bit too expensive and large to fit into a small space within the smartphone, and it will be some time until they are reduced in size.

There are cafés and shops in the Lund University premises, in Sweden, where vein scanning authentication is implemented by student Fredrik Leifland. It is one of the first in the world and already has 1600 users.

SMH also reports that US company Biyo, which Fujitsu has partnered with, is the first to provide payment terminals that connect a vein scan to a credit card. According to Fujitsu, it will provide one false positive for every 1.25 million attempts, paving the way for a wallet-less future where in-store purchases are verified by veins.