These two stories show how tech savvy even very young kids can be. Gaining access to a phone is easy if you have the owner's hand nearby.
Six year old kid circumvents iPhone biometrics to order USD250 of Pokemon toys
"After Ashlynd's parents received 13 order confirmations for Pokemon items, they initially thought they'd been hacked," the Wall Street Journal reports. They even considered that Ashlynd had purchased the items by mistake, but they later realized it was no accident.
"No, Mommy, I was shopping," Ashlynd told her mom. "But don't worry—everything that I ordered is coming straight to the house."
4 YO Boy Saves His Mom's Life By Unlocking Her iPhone
Quick thinking in the face of emergency isn't something you expect 4-year-olds to have but Roman's story is different because what he did to save is mother's life is incredible. On March 7, Roman was at home with his twin brother and younger brother when their mom collapsed. When she didn't revive, Roman used her thumb's fingerprint to unlock her iPhone and used the 'Siri' app to dial the UK's emergency number 999.
After connecting with the emergency dispatcher, Roman told her that his mom was 'dead'. When the dispatcher asked him what that meant, Roman replied, "It means she's closing her eyes and she's not breathing."
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Synaptics has created a 0.7 mm thick fingerprint sensor that can scan your finger from underneath a smartphone display, and the first company to use it will be the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo:
A brand you've never heard of will release the first phone with an in-screen fingerprint sensor
A few days ago, Synaptics announced that it's ready to mass-produce a fingerprint sensor that can be placed under the display of a smartphone, teasing that a top five smartphone maker is going to use the technology later this year. Synaptics' press release made it look like Samsung may be the first company to make use of its technology. But it looks like that won't be the case, as a new report reveals the company that will make this hotly anticipated handset... and if you're in the United States, you've probably never even heard of it.
[...] Forbes claims to have learned that Vivo will make the first smartphone to use Synaptics' Clear ID sensor.
Vivo, a company whose name might not be familiar to you, is actually a top-five smartphone maker thanks to its large presence in Chine[sic]. Forbes contributor Patrick Moorhead got to test the Clear ID sensor:
The Clear ID experience was fast and simple- I pressed the right side button to wake, a fingerprint image illuminated at the bottom of the phone, I touched it, and it let me in. I am expecting Vivo to modify the experience, so I just have to "hold to wake" so I do not even have to use the button.
- Fingerprint sensors under the display are going to be a real thing in 2018
- The first phone with an in-screen fingerprint sensor will come from Vivo
Related: Search Warrant for Your Fingerprint
Tech Savvy Kids Defeat Biometric Lockouts, Use Parents' Fingerprints to Unlock Phones
Credit Card With a Fingerprint Sensor Revealed by Mastercard
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday March 27 2017, @09:09PM (6 children)
> used her thumb's fingerprint to unlock her iPhone and used the 'Siri' app to dial the UK's emergency number 999
I thought iphones, like all androids, let you call emergency numbers even when locked.
Remember to tell that to your kids, just in case your fingerprint is with you at the bottom of a well.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday March 27 2017, @09:30PM (2 children)
A 4 year old may not be able to read yet. Good suggestion.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2017, @09:46PM (1 child)
If you teach your 4-year old to read, they can text for you while you drive too.
(Score: 5, Funny) by bob_super on Monday March 27 2017, @10:04PM
Bonus: most texting already looks like a 4-yr old wrote it.
(Score: 2) by RedBear on Tuesday March 28 2017, @12:08PM (2 children)
Absolutely correct. Any cell phone should show some kind of "Emergency Call" button even when in a locked state. In fact I believe you can use even a pre-activated phone to place an emergency call, as long as it has a SIM in it. Right out of the box.
One of the first links that comes up when googling this is from the turn of the millennium. So it would seem this has been true long before the existence of Android and iPhones. Seems like this should be something children should be taught starting in preschool or day care. It's a bit scary to think that kid might have had no clue how to call 999/911 if he failed to unlock the phone. TouchID on our iPhones fails whenever there's the slightest amount of moisture on our hands, and after 5 attempts that's it.
Imagine, instead of being some international child hero, spending the rest of your life as the kid who was too stupid to know a locked cell phone can still make an emergency call. It's actually sad and disappointing that the story is how kids are smart enough to figure out how to use someone's finger to bypass a fingerprint reader, and not about how kids need to be more aware that a locked phone can make an emergency call.
One final point is that this is a good argument for how all bio-based security systems still need to be paired with some kind of knowledge-based security like a simple pin number so that children and cops can't so easily bypass the "security" by just knocking you out and placing your finger on the reader. With a 5-try limit even a 2-digit pin makes it virtually impossible to get past the fingerprint reader without the user's help, but it's still super quick and easy for the user to unlock the device.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Tuesday March 28 2017, @04:40PM (1 child)
I have used my phone to make an emergency call sans SIM card. Not sure if the local phone companies' firmware helped make that work.
(Score: 1) by DmT on Tuesday March 28 2017, @07:54PM
You don't need special firmware. All phones are equipped with a possibility to call emergency even without a SIM card (at least in Europe). Its standard stuff.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @09:15AM (2 children)
They are not so precious as they have been made out to be. We were kids once, and no one called us preciousss. This preciousssness was invented recently to make humans not able to think for themselves and cry when someone says bad things to them. Sure, some people are more sensitive than others, but sensitivity taken to an extreme in a population is not healthy. Let the kids do what they want with their time and life. Let them fall and get wounded, let them play with guns*. That is how they learn. Tech-savvy kids are not really tech-savvy; they are just young human.
Multiple nations of pussies will only be able to become slaves, not masters of the universe they were meant to be.
*guns may be unloaded at the time of play
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @02:55PM (1 child)
somebody wasn't hugged enough as a child
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @08:30PM
my president
(Score: 4, Insightful) by lx on Tuesday March 28 2017, @10:51AM
If you name you kid "Ashlynd" you deserve no better.