FINGERPRINT BREACH / BLOG 4

            This story may be a popular one this week. I signed onto Facebook to see that a popular story currently is a data breach of the Office of Personnel Management where over 5.5 million fingerprints were accessed and stolen. The story originally was that "only" 1.1 million were compromised but that number jumped massively as the investigation continued. While the hackers did not get much from all of these fingerprints, as technology advances, fingerprints may be more useful for the hackers. As for right now, fingerprints do not allow enough access into the personal lives.

            This made me wonder what the future could hold for hackers and their victims in the future. As of right now, the only common sense thing that I could think of that my fingerprints link me to is my identity. They don't give you my social security number nor do they allow access to my banking account and routing numbers. But then I had to second-guess myself. I had remembered about my iPhone 6 sitting next to me. With one of the most recent operating system updates on my iPhone came fingerprinting "Touch ID" where I can unlock my phone, access Apple Pay and both Apple's App and iTunes Stores with the touch of my thumb or forefinger. Or any other finger that I decide to make my phone memorize for easy access. 

            I had just been talking with my roommates a few days earlier about how the Touch ID feature was one of the best additions to the new operating system and how I never knew that I needed it until I had it. With this personal realization comes the understanding that fingerprint scanners are going to begin to infiltrate the everyday person’s life in more ways over the years most likely. Once we as a society begin to become more reliant on them, that’s when hackers who have accessed this information that has affected over 21.5 million people will have more damage to cause.

            While not directly related to this week’s topic in the text, I felt that this story was meant to be on my Facebook. Fingerprints seem like a thing of the past when they are most likely going to be a part of our future. My prediction for the future is that we will become more reliant on our prints in places like the airport or bank in addition to other sensitive information like our social security number. Fingerprints are an obviously unique aspect of each of our bodies that it seems crazy that we’ve never really relied on them outside of a criminal investigation or something of the sort. Thankfully this breach occurred while we are less reliant on prints and over the years if we begin stretching towards the use of them, technology and security can learn with us so that a breach of this magnitude does not occur again. Maybe I could be entirely wrong in my prediction and maybe fingerprints will stop at Apple and iPhones.

Article link: http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/opm-5-6-million-fingerprints-not-1-1-million-were-n432281?cid=sm_tw&hootPostID=2b259895c48c0d9742f7bfbe0f5adfa4