Vimeo Slapped With Lawsuit Over Biometrics Privacy Policy

Vimeo, the popular ad-free video platform, is facing a lawsuit that alleges it stored people’s facial biometrics without their consent or knowledge. The lawsuit, which was filed on Sept. 20, claims Vimeo violated the Illinois Biometrics Information Privacy Act BIPA. This is a law that imposes...

New Biometrics

This article discusses new types of biometrics under development, including gait, scent, heartbeat, microbiome, and butt shape no, really...

Facebook Drops Default Facial Recognition Tag Suggestions

Facebook is giving users more control over a facial recognition feature used by the company to help identify, or Tag, people on its platform. Starting Tuesday, the company said it would allow its users to opt-out of the Tag Suggestions feature, while at the same time the company is attempting to...

Surveillance as a Condition for Humanitarian Aid

Excellent op-ed on the growing trend to tie humanitarian aid to surveillance. Despite the best intentions, the decision to deploy technology like biometrics is built on a number of unproven assumptions, such as, technology solutions can fix deeply embedded political problems. And that auditing fo...

News Wrap: DejaBlue Bugs and Biometrics Data Breaches

On the heels of Black Hat USA 2019 and DEF CON, Threatpost editors break down the biggest news of this past week ended Aug. 16, from Patch Tuesday craziness to publicly-exposed databases. That includes: Microsoft’s August Patch Tuesday release featuring four BlueKeep-like critical remote...

Bypassing Apple FaceID's Liveness Detection Feature

Apple's FaceID has a liveness detection feature, which prevents someone from unlocking a victim's phone by putting it in front of his face while he's sleeping. That feature has been hacked: Researchers on Wednesday during Black Hat USA 2019 demonstrated an attack that allowed them to bypass a...

Fingerprints of 1M Exposed in Public Biometrics Database

Researchers discovered the personal and biometrics data of more than a million people left publicly exposed on a database owned by Suprema, a biometric security company. Data includes facial recognition and fingerprint information collected by the UK metropolitan police, small local businesses an...

Researchers Bypass Apple FaceID Using Biometrics 'Achilles Heel'

LAS VEGAS – Vulnerabilities have been uncovered in the authentication process of biometrics technology that could allow bad actors to bypass various facial recognition applications – including Apple’s FaceID. But there is a catch. Doing so requires the victim to be out cold. Researchers on...

Shopify: Bypass of biometrics security functionality is possible in Android application (com.shopify.mobile)

Summary Shopify Android App has an option to sign in to the app using fingerprint. But if the application was open and someone triggers a "deeplink", authentication is no longer required. Step to Reproduce F523700 Link: Shopify Help Center - Topics - Products NOTE¹: The application must be open...

Hackers Found a Freaky New Way to Kill Your Car

Mueller report fallout, a biometrics database, and more of the week's top security news...

News Wrap: Amazon Echo Privacy, Facebook FTC Fines and Biometrics Regulation

Data privacy has been an outstanding theme this past week, and the Threatpost team discussed the biggest privacy related news. In the news wrap podcast for April 26, the team discussed the backstories behind several reports from the week, including: Facebook potentially facing Federal Trade...

Facial Recognition 'Consent’ Doesn’t Exist, Threatpost Poll Finds

Half of respondents in a recent Threatpost poll said that they don’t believe consent realistically exists when it comes to real-life facial recognition. The recent poll of 170 readers comes as facial recognition applications continue to pop up in the real world – from airports to police forces...

Poll: Are You Creeped Out By Facial Recognition?

Several news incidents this week regarding facial recognition and biometrics have sparked discussions in the security space over privacy concerns and issues around consent. First, a JetBlue passenger made headlines in a now-viral Twitter exchange with the airline, about the facial-recognition...

Google Ditches Passwords in Latest Android Devices

Half of all Android users can now log into apps and websites on their devices – without having to remember a cumbersome password. On Monday, Google and the Fast IDentity Online FIDO Alliance announced that devices running Android 7 or later are certified by the FIDO2 standard, meaning that users...

Threatpost Survey Says: 2FA is Just Fine, But Go Ahead and Kill SMS

The author of a recently released penetration testing tool called Modlishka, which can bypass mainstream two-factor authentication 2FA, asked a provocative question in a recently published research note: “Is 2FA broken?” Since this isn’t the first example of how 2FA can be defeated, we asked...

Using a Fake Hand to Defeat Hand-Vein Biometrics

Nice work: One attraction of a vein based system over, say, a more traditional fingerprint system is that it may be typically harder for an attacker to learn how a user's veins are positioned under their skin, rather than lifting a fingerprint from a held object or high quality photograph, for...

Biometrics in 2019: Increased Security or New Attack Vector

This year thousands of consumers unwrapped new smartphones and laptops which come with biometric sensors that are intended to protect their data and identities through strong authentication. Apple continues to gain popularity with its iPhone X facial recognition feature while more laptops and...

The vulnerability of Qualcomm Biometrics’ component in the Android operating system allows a perpetrator to execute arbitrary code.

The vulnerability of Qualcomm Biometrics’ component in the Android operating system is caused by an overflow in the memory buffer. Exploiting this vulnerability could allow a perpetrator to execute arbitrary code...

Biometrics: Security Solution or Issue?

NYC – With more transactions occurring online – and subsequently, the number of data breaches increasing – biometrics are moving to the forefront in discussions as a top way to authenticate data securely. However, challenges remain. The method is not yet being widely utilized by consumers or...

Hackers Breach Dunkin' Donuts Accounts in Credential Stuffing Attack

A credential stuffing attack has allowed hackers to take a big bite out of Dunkin’ Donuts customer data. The donut giant announced Tuesday evening that a data breach in October may have led to customers’ personal information being compromised. Dunkin’ Brands Inc. in an advisory posted to its...