5.6 million reasons fingerprints shouldn’t be used as passwords

Okay, I lied with this title. I don’t have 5.6 million reasons fingerprints are not good as passwords, I have one. But in the massive breach of US federal employee data, nearly 6 million individuals’ passwords were stolen.

That’s data that can’t be changed, ever.

A fingerprint is fine as a username. It identifies you. You never need to change it, and it’s pretty public, considering you leave your fingerprints everywhere. Fingerprints can be spoofed just from photos of you.

Passwords, on the other hand, should be changeable because of the ever-increasing number of data breaches we suffer each year. A fingerprint shouldn’t be used to authenticate your identity, Dustin Kirkland, a technical strategist at Canonical, writes. 

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