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iPhone 5S to Lead Fingerprint Security Revolution Says PayPal

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The iPhone 5S will usher in a new era of security for mobile users claims PayPal chief information security officer Michael Barrett, who believes the rumored fingerprint reader can help thwart hackers.

The first iPhone 5S rumor and one that still stands is that Apple is planning to put a fingerprint reader in the iPhone 5S home button which could replace the PIN to unlock the phone and passwords users need to enter for apps and websites.

There is some speculation that this feature will skip the iPhone 5S and go into the iPhone 6, but Barrett appears confident that Apple will launch a smartphone with a built-in fingerprint reader this year, and that it will lead the charge to multiple devices.

The iPhone 5S is rumored to feature a similar design and a hidden fingerprint reader.

The iPhone 5S is rumored to feature a similar design and a hidden fingerprint reader.

MacWorld UK reports that Barrett took the stage at Interop in Las Vegas to declare 2013 the year the password died. After discussing the failures of passwords, Barrett told the audience,

It’s widely rumored that a large technology provider in Cupertino, Calif., will come out with a phone later this year that has a fingerprint reader on it,”

“There is going to be a fingerprint enabled phone on the market later this year. Not just one, multiple.

Barrett doesn’t seem to be speaking with any inside information about the iPhone 5S, but as the president of Fast IdentityOnline, an organization with the mission to, “change the nature of online authentication” and goals of delivering the standards to reduce our need for passwords he likely has a large number of inside connections.

The iPhone 5S is the most popular rumored smartphone with a fingerprint reader built-in, but if he is correct we should see others follow suit. Apple purchased AuthenTec to help deliver this new security method, but there are other companies out there working on fingerprint readers in smartphones.

Read: Why Apple’s iPhone 5S Problem is Genius

Validity is another manufacturer working to put hidden fingerprint readers in Android smartphones. The company showed off a demo at CES, shown in the video below.

With Samsung’s big push for enterprise with Samsung Knox, we could see Samsung partner with a company like Validity to put a fingerprint sensor inside the Galaxy Note 3 which will arrive later this year. The phone in this demo is a Samsung Galaxy S2, but it is not indicative of any partnership.

The iPhone 5S is rumored to start production in June or July with a possible announcement in September, which could typically be followed two weeks later by an iPhone 5S release.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Bigmouth

    05/10/2013 at 10:23 am

    Wait, what? Didn’t the Atrix have a fingerprint reader? People said the same nonsense about Siri. Do tech writers even bother researching this stuff before they post?

    • Matt

      05/10/2013 at 7:03 pm

      I believe the Atrix was the first phone but the only one to do it. But the thing is if Apple does it, then 6 months later you will see it everywhere. These other manufacturers tend to follow Apple’s lead on a lot of stuff.

  2. AJ

    05/10/2013 at 10:23 pm

    I have Atrix and it works beautifully. But of course, If Apple does it, its the first and a game changer! Sick of it!

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