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A fingerprint is only going to stop a very opportunistic attacker. Someone who already has your desktop and app password and physical access to your desktop can

A fingerprint is only going to stop a very opportunistic attacker. Someone who already has your desktop and app password and physical access to your desktop can probably get a fingerprint off a glass, cup or something else. I don't think this product is as useful as it seems at first glance. Using stronger passwords is probably just as safe. But I am no tptacek so I may be completely wrong :)

onion2k 7y ago
A fingerprint is only going to stop a very opportunistic attacker. Someone who already has your desktop and app password and physical access to your desktop can probably get a fingerprint off a glass, cup or something else. The people most of us work with have physical access to our computers and they could probably shoulder surf a short password (use a password manager!). I don't imagine any of them could successfully lift a fingerprint sufficiently well to fool a biometric reader. It's looks easy in perfect conditions on YouTube but in the real world it's a bit harder. I hope not anyway because my office has fingerprint access.
blablabla123 7y ago
Depends how you define an opportunistic hacker. https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/
misterdoubt 7y ago
The tremendous majority of property crime, especially cyber, is opportunistic.
jeremyjh 7y ago
For most people, their threat model is someone in their home, office or circle of acquaintances snooping on their computer - either casually or with criminal intent but little savvy. These are not sophisticated actors, they are not lifting fingerprints off glasses. Anyway, Yubikey is only a second factor - not your entire security strategy - and I think it is made a bit stronger with a biometric, thats all.
ekianjo 7y ago
> A fingerprint is only going to stop a very opportunistic attacker. Someone who already has your desktop and app password and physical access to your desktop can probably get a fingerprint off a glass, cup or something else. I do hope you realize this raises the amount of work the attacker has to do to actually get access to your device. It's a little like saying a second lock on your door is not going to stop anyone, but in practice statistics are clear: adding one more layer, even if that layer can be defeated as well, reduces the chance of a successful attack, or deters the attacker in the first place.

A fingerprint is only going to stop a very opportunistic attacker. Someone who already has your desktop and app password and physical access to your desktop can probably get a fingerprint off a glass, cup or something else. I don't think this product is as useful as it seems at first glance. Using stronger passwords is probably just as safe. But I am no tptacek so I may be completely wrong :)

onion2k 7y ago

A fingerprint is only going to stop a very opportunistic attacker. Someone who already has your desktop and app password and physical access to your desktop can probably get a fingerprint off a glass, cup or something else. The people most of us work with have physical access to our computers and they could probably shoulder surf a short password (use a password manager!). I don't imagine any of them could successfully lift a fingerprint sufficiently well to fool a biometric reader. It's looks easy in perfect conditions on YouTube but in the real world it's a bit harder. I hope not anyway because my office has fingerprint access.

blablabla123 7y ago

Depends how you define an opportunistic hacker. https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/

misterdoubt 7y ago

The tremendous majority of property crime, especially cyber, is opportunistic.

jeremyjh 7y ago

For most people, their threat model is someone in their home, office or circle of acquaintances snooping on their computer - either casually or with criminal intent but little savvy. These are not sophisticated actors, they are not lifting fingerprints off glasses. Anyway, Yubikey is only a second factor - not your entire security strategy - and I think it is made a bit stronger with a biometric, thats all.

ekianjo 7y ago

> A fingerprint is only going to stop a very opportunistic attacker. Someone who already has your desktop and app password and physical access to your desktop can probably get a fingerprint off a glass, cup or something else. I do hope you realize this raises the amount of work the attacker has to do to actually get access to your device. It's a little like saying a second lock on your door is not going to stop anyone, but in practice statistics are clear: adding one more layer, even if that layer can be defeated as well, reduces the chance of a successful attack, or deters the attacker in the first place.