Comments on: Vietnamese security firm: Your face is easy to fake

During demonstration, company shows that face recognition-based authentication in laptops from Lenovo, Toshiba, and Asus may not be an effective security measure.

[JoeKoskovics]

This is not a surprise.
As science fiction and television drama writers had forecast technology's growth, they also forecast ways to fool technology too. Be it "Mission: Impossible", "Star Trek", or even "The Jetsons", technology can sometimes be fooled by the simplest tool.

In this case, "A picture is worth a thousand (pass)words".

[brief]

Agreed, we're always seeing spy movies and TV shows where supposedly high-tech, sophisticated authentication technology are being thwarted by secret agents. Not all of the technology they show are truly viable.

I remember an old comedy skit, where the entrance was protected by voice recognition. When the user had a sore throat, he was denied access.


But perhaps facial recognition AND voice recognition used together might offer slightly better security? Of course, the pass phrase would have to be something the user comes up with, and not from a list of generic pass phrases, which someone else could try to record from you via a Skype call...

[7aji88]

what about those red motion detection lasers? Ever thought that a cheap IR sensor that every business with a security system installed have can do much better.

[basraw]

I guess you would be screwed if you got disfigured in an accident..

Or had the lap top as a child - set it up, and didn't log in for 20 years after that??

Best to have that photo around!!!! lol

[dude7895]

This same thing was on Burn Notice, made me laugh.

[wallcrawler78]

Face recognition in Ubuntu mixed with Clutter-facebrowser would be aweseome. It is a new GDM using the clutter project code. I could see your PC automatically shortening the amount of faces displayed in order to automatically trim down options.

Project page is here:https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Specs/GdmFaceBrowser
Youtube Video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQN1VSlVApo

face recognition in facebrowser would be really slick.

[Hernys]

This is so obvious that it doesn't even need to be tested to know it doesn't work. In order for something to work as an authentication mechanism it needs to be secret or non reproduceable. A static face is neither.
Anyone sellign this as a security technology is a scammer. Don't buy laptops from whoever tries to sell this technology. They are being driven by marketing without input from Engineering. You don't want their machines.

[Clarious]

I think they can solve this by capture at least 2 pictures of your face at difference angles, but that is a little bit complicated for a "toy" security solution, why don't just stay with finger print?

[DrollTroll]

because you can cut off fingers...

[rapier1]

If they have physical access to cut off their fingers why not just decapitate the person and use their head or just force them to authenticate.

[vinhkhanhle]

This is not new, engineers who work with this project already knew the weakness of facial recognition but sensor technology currently does not allow them to go beyond and fix this problem. So, this is just an advertisement for BKAV, not a news to me.

[rbkirk]

These facial recognition systems are on CONSUMER level machines from Lenovo, not the corporate level notebook systems. For example, no Lenovo Thinkpads have facial recognition...that is only on the Ideapads. There is a reason they are a different brand, with different levels of construction, price, and target market.

It is a flawed article which did not point this difference within manufacturer brands out...or get a comment from the companies mentioned in the article.

[Tomofumi]

how about the twins? is it possible to login from any of them?
seems retina scanning is more secure than face recognition.

[a__l__a__n]

This concept is fundamentally flawed. Your face is not a secret.

[Ayeroxor]

Real, robust facial recognition requires the user to smile or blink to prove it's not a photo. This software is clearly just a toy and should not be depended upon for any security.

[jscott418]

It makes sense because the technology is not that involved. Its not like a retina scanner. Its more of a selling tool then anything. The best security is a password which then should be changed frequently.
Other security measures are too expensive at this point. The rest as we see here are just smoke and mirrors.

[jack2423]

hey like the article.
here's something i've thought of trying but been to lazy too... on mythbusters they took a scan of a finger and used it on a fingerprint pad to get through, same principle (much harder to get someones fingerprint though i hope). try it on your comp in your free time. If i remember ill try it tomorrow.

[myles taylor]

Yes but if you remember correctly, it took them many attempts to do it. It certainly wasn't easy.

[MSSlayer]

Facial recognition is very difficult to get right, even proper use of neural networks and fuzzy logic doesn't guarantee accuracy. Differences in lighting, makeup and angles can foil the best FR program.

The bottom line is that anything that can be digitized can be spoofed. Biometrics gives the illusion of security not security itself.

Even if it was actually a true security measure, what happens if someone's face get damaged?

[dodgeboy99]

Where not talking about top level security here. We are talking about a convienent way to log in a family member to a family computer. If you need security there are options out there just spend the time and money to find them.
My Lenovo laptop has performed great wtih facial recognion except for the fact that it will not log me into websites only the OS.

[Angmarr]

i was wondering how this works because i tried using a simple picture and it didnt work. too bad they dont have a way to use 3D face recognition

[quanglh_vn]

It may not simple as it seems. They said that the picture must go through some "simple" digital image processing things in order to fool the recognitor.

In order to find that "simple" thing, it's obviously that they had to research much about the recognition technologies used by the producer.

[Mac OS XP]

It looks like a creepy version of Photo Booth.

So why don't they just have a thumbprint reader?