New eye-scanning technology seemed to be a beacon of hope for consumers who wanted to feel more secure in the digital age but it seems as if even these devices won’t be enough to keep dedicated hackers away.
On the surface, it seems like a great idea—trade in passwords for technology that can scan a feature that is truly unique to each user.
From phone apps to Eyelock’s Myris, many devices have hit the market to promise to keep hackers away with technology that will scan a user’s iris to identify them.
Because each person’s iris is unique, even from their other eye, it certainly seemed like a full proof plan, but the technology still has a ways to go before it will really be considered a serious security tool.
Eyelock’s Myris is the most popular of such devices and while its design is appealing and smart, there is a major loophole in the way the technology functions.
Users are still able to enter a password in order to bypass the Myris completely.
While an annoying pop up will appear until the user passes the iris scanning or updates their security information, there is still nothing stopping a hacker from sifting through files and personal documents because they managed to obtain your old password.
This, of course, does not discredit the technology completely.
It simply means that there is a ways to go before it can actually boast its ability to help fight off hackers—and even then some users just weren’t too impressed with the potential of what Myris and other similar technologies could do.
“So how will this help with the hacks of targets and walmarts,” one KKTV viewer asked in a comment online.
The technology is currently being developed to work for ATMs and security checkpoints, but so far it doesn’t seem as if this technology will come close to putting an end to shoppers’ fears of their credit card information getting stolen because of a successful cyber attack on their favorite retailer.
To be clear, those cyber attacks are extremely complicated and will never be solved with a roughly $300 consumer security device.
Other online readers were skeptical about how slight changes in appearance could impact the technology’s ability to function.
“Have a cold, look sick, got a rash? Well too bad, looks like you aren’t getting into your own equipment until you’re better,” another comment said.
That doesn’t seem to be the case here – well not with the Myris at least.
That technology is not saving the image of your eye, it is saving the unique pattern of your iris, which wouldn’t change if users become ill or have a rash.
Then there is also the fact that as long as someone can figure out your password, they can still technically gain access to whatever you were trying to keep protected. In that case, the Myris won’t be keeping anyone permanently locked out of their equipment under any circumstances.
When it comes down to it, in the battle between consumers and small-time hackers the Myris and other consumer iris scanning technology is an interesting line of defense but it certainly isn’t the most effective one for now—though they certainly could be as these technologies continue to develop over the years.