> After watching lots of movies, many of us would like to think that a fingerprint reader or iris scanner could be what passwords used to be: a single-factor solution, an instant verification. But they both have two inherent problems. First, the infrastructure to support them doesn’t exist, a chicken-or-egg issue that almost always spells death for a new technology. Because fingerprint readers and iris scanners are expensive and buggy, no one uses them, and because no one uses them, they never become cheaper or better.
Today I've read one of Polish banks is going to test out fingerprint ATMs. Not that I have ammounts worth cutting my thumb off, but I wouldn't opt-in for that.
'Vein readers, on the other hand, are fast and accurate. “Finger veins are also very difficult to steal,” Kitayama points out. Even if a thief were to hack off your hand to fool a vein scanner, he’d have to keep all the blood inside your severed appendage to make it work.'
> Not that I have ammounts worth cutting my thumb off
Neither do I, but attackers don't know that.
On the other hand, cutting off someone's thumb is probably more effort than leading them up to an ATM at gun-point. I'd be more worried about spoofing the scanner itself.
related: mythbusters hacking (a probably not that advanced) fingerprint protection http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hji3kp_i9k
Today I've read one of Polish banks is going to test out fingerprint ATMs. Not that I have ammounts worth cutting my thumb off, but I wouldn't opt-in for that.