Random sites… ya gotta love them.
So I was surfing the net today, and a "sponsor site" on one of the random pages I was BananaSecurity.com. I had to check it out with a name like that, so I browsed on over. They advertise interesting software... essentially it's screen saver biometrics using a web cam. When your face is recognized the BananaSecurity screensaver unlocks your computer. Now in their "Notice" link they refer to themselves as BS, which leads me to "trust" the product. The concept seems interesting but is it really there.
So... has anyone been to BananaSecurity.com before? and better yet has anyone tried out the software? I'm looking for thoughts and opinions...
don’t know bananasecurity specifically, but i do know the type of application as i helped develop the same type of thing for a previous employer…
first and foremost – i would never trust biometrics as the sole authenticator… it’s fine as an additional layer (ie. if you had to enter your password AND be recognized) but on it’s own it’s just too error prone… i’ve seen foolproof technologies get fooled in ways that weren’t supposed to be possible (ex. iris recognition where someone can get recognized as the previous successfully recognized person regardless of who that previous person was)…
second, i would not trust an operating mode that took a face as it’s only input (ie. ‘your face is your password’) – not just because of how error prone biometrics are but because the most likely way it’s implemented is by storing your conventional credentials somewhere and entering them for you as a convenience when the face rec system recognizes you… that’s obviously a security problem and i fought hard to avoid implementing that particular mode of operation when i was doing that sort of work…
finally, people should be aware that the less intrusive/invasive a particular biometric is the easier it is to forge… no one wants to use a biometric that sticks a needle in them (like in the movie gattaca), but so many of our properties can be easily recorded and reproduced that the invasive ones are really the only ones that are resistant to forgery… we’ve seen fingerprint readers fall to photocopied fingerprints on mythbusters and i’ve seen face rec fooled by photographs… only biometrics based on those physical details we are able to keep private are really secure against forgery (and even then it’s a security by obscurity sort of deal)…
Hi,
As a member of BananaSecurity.com, I just want to clarify something about Kurt Wismer’s comment. For the moment we consider our beta version as a fun and convenient way to lock/unlock your computer, nothing more.
You just need 3 minutes to test our software. Download and install it, enroll your face and press [Alt] + L and you can see if it works well enough for you. The installation doesn’t change critical files on your system, you can uninstall it easily and there is a field for your Windows password if there is a recognition problem.
I used this s/w yesterday and yea its pretty cool. The only problem is that I do use my webcam for a lot of video chatting, and if my video chat is on, the messenger blocks the webcam and banana security becomes useless in that case. Banana Security should make/advise a tool on their website, where in multiple applications could use the webcam at the same time.
But yes, it works really well, the face recognition is instantaneous.
Hi,
As a member of BananaSecurity.com, I just want to clarify something about Kurt Wismer's comment. For the moment we consider our beta version as a fun and convenient way to lock/unlock your computer, nothing more.
You just need 3 minutes to test our software. Download and install it, enroll your face and press [Alt] L and you can see if it works well enough for you. The installation doesn't change critical files on your system, you can uninstall it easily and there is a field for your Windows password if there is a recognition problem.