alt Hacker NewsThere appear to be a relatively few possibilities.
* The reporter lied.
* The reporter forgot.
* Apple devices share fingerprint matching details and another device had her details (this is supposed to be impossible, and I have no reason to believe it isn't).
* The government hacked the computer such that it would unlock this way (probably impossible as well).
* The fingerprint security is much worse than years of evidence suggests.
Mainly it was buried at the very end of the article, and I thought it worth mentioning here in case people missed it.
Replies
The reporter lying or forgetting seems to be the clear answer, there's really no reason to believe it's not one of those. And the distinction between the two isn't really important from a technical perspective.
Fingerprint security being poor is also unlikely, because that would only apply if a different finger had been registered.
My opinion is that she set it up, it didn't work at first, she didn't use it, forgot that it existed, and here we are.
> Apple devices share fingerprint matching details and another device had her details
I looked into it quite seriously for windows thinkpads, unless Apple do it differently, you cannot share fingerprint, they're in a local chip and never move.