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

ExclusivePodcast - 1st October 2011

Mark Bridge heads to Bletchley Park for Over The Air 2011, a unique annual event for mobile developers. This is the first of two special reports; today Mark catches up with Dr Sue Black, Daniel Appelquist and Paul Johnston to learn exactly what Over The Air is all about.

ExclusivePodcast - 28th September 2011

HP, Facebook and Twitter are all up for discussion in The Fonecast this week, along with customer service complaints, mobile security failings and children with iPhones.

ExclusivePodcast - 21st September 2011

There's a wide variety of mobile industry news in this week's podcast, from the launch of Google Wallet to the appearance of Windows 8 on a tablet device. Plus we talk about RIM's results, Apple's advertising, InMobi's investment... and much more.

ExclusivePodcast - 16th September 2011

We listen to the European Commission's eCall announcement by Neelie Kroes. It marks the start of the EC's planned introduction of in-car emergency call technology by 2015.

ExclusivePodcast - 14th September 2011

In this week's edition of The Fonecast we're covering a wide range of mobile industry topics, from apps to ads, from patents to payments... and from mobile TV to Flash video.

RSS
First4546474850525354Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Archive Calendar

«June 2026»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
25262728293031
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293012345

Archive