Severed Fingers Wont Unlock iPhone 5S, Live Tissue Needed

Only Live, Not Severered, Fingers Can Operate New iPhone 5S

Because Apple’s new iPhone 5S uses a Touch ID fingerprint sensor for access, many customers have expressed anxiety that a desperate criminal may just sever their finger in order to steal their new iPhone to use the severed digit to operate it.

But officials at Apple are reassuring customers that the revolutionary technology used in the device will only respond to reading a fingerprint from a live finger still attached to the hand of its rightful owner.

According to Mashable, the iPhone 5S’s fingerprint sensor detects the sub-epidermal layers of your skin, meaning it won’t work unless the finger used is also attached to a living human being.

“The [RF capacitive sensor] technology is built in a way that the [fingerprint] image has to be taken from a live finger,” Sebastien Taveau, an expert on fingerprint technology told Mashable.

“No one in biometrics wants to talk about cut fingers and dead bodies, but at the end of the day we are still asked to remove the fears of consumer and make sure that they understand that [a severed finger] will not work.”

Anyone attempting to access a stolen Apple iPhone by cutting off the owner’s finger will not only be out of luck but most likely arrested by the police.

Nervous customers have Validity Sensors, the company that developed the sophisticated fingerprint security feature, to thank for the fact that only a live fingerprint serves as the key to unlock the phone.

Marc Rogers, intelligence expert and current Principal Security Researcher at Lookout Mobile Security told the Huff post, the fingerprint scanner will worth best combined with a code or another security feature.

“Fingerprints can be a useful addition to security but their value depends highly on the type of fingerprint reader and how it is being used – for example, the best use of a fingerprint is to provide a convenient way to unlock something in a medium to low security scenario,” Rogers said.

“Unlocking a device with a fingerprint, if done right, can be much more convenient than entering a pin code multiple times a day.”

Apple is expecting a flood of pre-orders for its newest communication device. A spokesman for Validity Sensors says he considers the use of fingerprint technology on this latest iPhone introduction to be a “really cool” use of a technology that isn’t brand new but that has previously been restricted to use on locking and unlocking computer laptops. Let’s hope that criminals get the word that severed digits will prove useless.

On The Web:

Severed fingers iPhone 5S
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/17/iphone-5s-touch-id-wont-work-with-severed-fingers

Severed fingers iPhone 5S: No, A Severed Finger Will Not Be Able to Access a Stolen iPhone 5S
http://mashable.com/2013/09/15/severed-finger-iphone-5s/

Could iPhone 5S Thieves Chop Off Fingers To Hack Fingerprint Scanner?
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/09/11/iphone-5s-fingerprint-chop-fingers_n_3904572.html