Categories
Close
Menu
Menu
Close
Search
Search

Featured Articles

RSS
123

Opinion Articles

Opinion

Catherine Zeta-Jones and the security of touchscreen passwords

Mark

Share:

Print

Rate article:

No rating
Rate this article:
No rating

Mark Bridge writes:

I knew I’d seen it before. Towards the end of last week I read about a study from the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania that said it was pretty easy to identify passwords from smudges on touchscreen mobile phones.

We discussed it in this morning’s edition of The Fonecast and I mentioned that I was sure I’d seen something similar in film. Well, I’ve been doing some checking online and I’ve confirmed my suspicions. The 1999 movie Entrapment, which starred Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones, includes a scene where the pair attempt to break into the ‘International Clearance Bank’ at the top of the Petronas Towers.

They reveal a number of fingerprints on a Dataton touch-sensitive panel and quickly conclude the passphrase is ‘Don't use a cannon to kill a mosquito’.

Entrapment touch-screen passphrase

As for my reference to Ms Zeta-Jones’s bottom; if you’ve not seen the film, there's a scene where the actress climbs through a 'net' of laser beams that many cinemagoers were particularly fond of. Take a look at the film trailer if you're still not sure what I'm talking about.

 

Comments

Collapse Expand Comments (0)
You don't have permission to post comments.

Recent Podcasts

ExclusiveOur mobile phone industry predictions for 2013

It's the last podcast of 2012, so we're making some predictions about the mobile industry in 2013... and looking back to the forecasts we made twelve months ago..

Should we expect a renaissance at BlackBerry?  Is it the beginning of the end for SMS?  Will smartphones keep getting bigger?  Will the number of UK networks get smaller? 

ExclusiveGemalto and mobile financial services: we talk to Amol Deshmukh and Winston Yeo

Today's podcast feature takes a look at mobile financial services, from the current state of mobile payments to NFC adoption and the developments we're likely to see next year.

Joining us are Winston Yeo, Vice President Marketing and Product Management for Mobile Financial Services at Gemalto, and Amol Deshmukh, Gemalto's Director of Mobile Financial Services for North America.

RSS
First2425262729313233Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Archive Calendar

«June 2026»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
25262728293031
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293012345

Archive