The Weekly Cypher is specially curated to keep you up-to-date on the latest in cybersecurity, biometrics, and related news and innovations. Here are a few of the headlines you might have missed this week:
Sony Finally Bringing Mobile Fingerprint Sensor to US Market | The Verge
The Sony Xperia Xa2, XA2 Ultra, and L2 will be the first smartphones from the tech giant to feature built-in fingerprint sensors on the US market. While many of its devices have featured the technology before, it was always disabled on the US-released versions. Sony has traditionally taken a different approach to Apple, Samsung, and others, by placing the fingerprint sensor in the Power button, but these three phones will feature it on the rear of the device like many other Android smartphones. [Read More]
DoD Evolving CAC Before Replacement | Federal News Radio
The US Department of Defense (DoD) plans to eliminate the Common Access Card (CAC) and replace it with a multi factor authentication solution including biometrics sometime in the future. However, a recent update from the DoD states that they plan to “evolve” the current smart card system before total replacement. This plan will turn the CAC into a personnel identity verification (PIV) tool, rather than a basic access card, in order to better confirm the identity of the user. [Read More]
It’s Time to Talk about Cybersecurity | Government Technology
Internal conversations about cybersecurity are a must for any organization, but particularly in local, state, and federal government. Sometimes, however, these conversations can be difficult to initiate. The former chief security officer for the state of Michigan offers some advice on kickstarting these conversations, including offering quality metrics and reporting, adapting the talk to the audience, and leveraging existing mechanisms to streamline communication. [Read More]
Government Cybersecurity Impacted by Meltdown & Spectre | Nextgov
Perhaps the largest cybersecurity vulnerability ever was revealed in the tail-end of 2017. Meltdown and Spectre are fanciful names for the core hardware vulnerabilities that likely affect almost every computer system in the world. In summary, these vulnerabilities would allow a hacker access to the memory of the machine, granting access to passwords and any other sensitive data stored on it. While it is unknown how many if any, computers are being abused by these vulnerabilities, the potential damage, particularly in the government sector, is astonishing. [Read More]
Face ID Spoofed by British Family | Daily Mail
A father in the UK posted a video of his wife’s iPhone X unlocking with Face ID for both her and himself, casting more doubts on the technology’s strength. While Apple has assured consumers that Face ID only responds to a single user, this, as well as video of Chinese consumers unlocking each other’s devices, showcase a weakness in facial recognition’s ability to outperform other biometrics, such as fingerprint or iris. Apple has yet to release a comment on the issue. [Read More]
