Guys Upstairs - Tech

A Vietnamese security firm has demonstrated that laptop facial recognition software is not as secure as it may seem. BKIS, a Vietnamese Internetwork Security Center that makes antivirus software and has recently unveiled vulnerabilities in Windows Media Encoder 9 as well as Google Chrome.

Dong Ngo of CNET participated in a demonstration in which he first used a Lenovo Y430 running Vista and established himself as a legitimate user. Lenovo’s Veriface III software scanned his face for various points so that it would be able to recognize his face from various angles. The actual logon after the setup took less than a second. Within 5 minutes of starting up a Skype video chat with a BKIS technician, the technician was able to produce a “rather unflattering” picture printed on letter paper. The printout was able to log into the computer without any problems. Asus and Toshiba are also vulnerable to this problem.

The picture does not need to be high resolution, but needs to be processed such that certain key points and contrast levels are adjusted to match what the recognition algorithm expects. These vulnerabilities may be hard to overcome, so if you want to keep your laptop secure stick with username and password or fingerprint recognition.

[CNET]

This morning Alienware released a teaser image stating that they will unveil something new. That product turned out to be the M17 Extreme Gaming Notebook Computer, “Aggressive Performance at an Equally Aggressive Price.” This is Alienware’s first 17-inch Notebook with Intel Mobile Quad Core and ATI Crossfire X.

The base setup uses the Intel Core2 P8400 2.26 GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB), 2GB DDR3 at 1066 MHz, 160GB hard drive, and the 512 MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870. There are a few recommended systems, “For the Wallet”, ”For the Win”, and “Ultimate Gamer.” The notebook can be configured with up to the Intel Core2 Quad/Extreme, 4GB DDR3 RAM, dual ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPUs, 1TB Hard Drive space using Raid 0, Blu-Ray reader. Security features include fingerprint reader as well as facial recognition software. The M17 also has the option of having an illuminated keyboard in one of three colors - Astral Blue, Fusion Red, or Terra Green.

Pricing starts at $1,399 for the base configuration, $1,999 (For the Wallet), $2,899 (For the Win), $4,199 (Ultimate Gamer). The last one should probably be renamed to “Ultimate Spender.”

[Alienware]