Technology Corner

I haven't posted a tech article by Ed Bott here recently.  I should do that far more often.  Ed is one of the more insightful and longtime tech journalists who writes a great column for ZDNet.  He's deeply knowledgeable abut his field, and often writes about arcane but very important subjects, yet does so in a highly accessible way.  Here's an example.

Only a couple days after Apple released its iPhone 5s with fingerprint security -- the technology was hacked.  If you use this, or plan(ned) to, this might be of concern.  Ed took a look at it to, and as usual, he takes a well-rounded, interesting look at it.

Quoting Germany's Chaos Computer Club, which did the hack, “This demonstrates – again that fingerprint biometrics is unsuitable as access control method and should be avoided.”

"Actually," Ed writes, "it demonstrates no such thing."

And explains why, going into some of the history of fingerprint technology and previous hacks, using some pointed photographs along the way.  But, in his evenhanded way, he doesn't let Apple off the hook either.  "As usual," he writes, "Apple has managed to blur the thin line between technical reality and marketing claims. Apple’s support document, “iPhone 5s: About Touch ID security,” is practically oozing with buzzwords and marketing-speak."  And -- he explains why.

You can read the full article here.