Hackers are gearing up for Friday’s release of the iPhone 5S, aiming to be the first to crack the device’s first-ever fingerprint scanner, a security feature that Apple Inc hopes will set the new model apart from the competition.
Among those hoping to win the prizes -- and the glory of uncovering potential flaws so Apple can then fix them -- is David Kennedy, a former US Marine Corps cyber-intelligence analyst who did two tours in Iraq and now runs his own consulting firm, TrustedSec.
“I am just waiting to get my hands on it to figure out how to get around it first,” the founder of the DerbyCon hacking conference told the Thomson Reuters Global Markets Forum this week. “I’ll be up all night trying.”
The fingerprint scanner on the top-of-the-line iPhone lets users unlock their devices or make purchases on iTunes by simply pressing their finger on the home button. It has been hailed as a major step in popularizing the use of biometrics in personal electronics.
Security experts worry about the implications of using the module to grant access to sensitive data on the phone and potentially enabling mobile purchases.