It’s pretty safe to say that computer science Professor Willy Susilo won’t be relying on a fingerprint scanner to keep his mobile phone secure. In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, Susilo says that the fingerprint scanners used by Apple and Samsung are mere “gimmicks” that hackers can easily fool and that don’t give users and real biometric security.
That said, Susilo doesn’t think that this means biometrics have no place mobile security. In fact he’s very bullish on two different kinds of biometrics scanners that may one day grace our smartphones: Retina scanners and vein scanners.
Susilo is more optimistic about vein scanners, mostly because there are concerns among biometrics researchers that iris scanners could present cancer risks. Another advantage to vein scanners is that they apparently require no physical contact, which makes it harder for hackers to create fake models like the ones they use to fool fingerprint scanners.
