New IBM Thinkpad includes biometrics

[Peter Gutmann]

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn at garlic.com> writes:

>one of the market targets of biometrics has been those that write their
>password on their machine (or don't even bother with a password).

Even that may not be a valid market target.  If your threat model is script
kiddies/hackers in eastern Europe (that is, generic un-targeted attacks, the
most common type) then writing your password on a post-it note is a perfectly
acceptable response, because the one thing a script kiddie can't do is get
physical access to your desk.  So the primary market for biometrics would
really be people for whom passwords are too much effort (as the former US
biometrics czar said, they're for convenience, not security).

Peter.

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