Can anyone break RSA? Probably not.

What is RSA?

RSA (Rivest–Shamir—Adleman) is a popular public-key cryptosystem for secure data transmission and key exchange. It is also widely used in banking and financial systems for user authentication and transactions.

• Can anyone break RSA? Probably not.

• As of today, all banking and other financial systems, including credit cards, depend on RSA algorithm-based security technology.

• RSA is not likely to be breakable using classical computing power.

• However, quantum computing will pose threats to the RSA algorithm.

When a general-purpose quantum computer is available, breaking RSA security keys would be a regular job of a few hours.

Can anyone break biometrics?

To tackle my inconvenient question regarding biometrics, one commenter recently wrote that no security measure would be 100 percent safe.

• I agree that no security can provide 100 percent foolproof safety.

• But what would happen if a security factor is inherently unreliable?

Yes. Biometrics is inherently unreliable and the process of biometrics authentication can compromise security!

I will elaborate with facts.

Fraudsters regularly break biometrics by spoofing.

Where? Let me give examples of spoofing biometrics in India.

• Criminals regularly loot money from Indian citizens' bank accounts using biometrics (fingerprint) spoofs and the Aadhar-enabled Payment System (AePS).

• Criminals don't need special hacking skills to loot money using AePS.

• The fraudsters acquire/steal fingerprints of genuine people from some government departments, such as land registration offices.

• How? Probably by bribing dishonest government staff in land registration offices, where people have to give their fingerprints!

• After collecting the fingerprint copies, the fraudsters create spoofs of fingerprints.

Creating fingerprint spoofs is not at all a difficult task.

Polythene sheets, like those used in overhead slides, are relatively easy to use for creating fingerprint spoofs. So, creating a fingerprint spoof may cost less than INR10!

Students in India used fingerprint spoofs to fool the university's attendance recording fingerprint sensors.

• Spoofing biometrics is possible.

• A few years ago, students of UDCT, or the University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT) in Mumbai, were caught cheating the institute's fingerprint sensors to record their daily class attendance.

• Each student used to carry fingering spoofs of many students and mark attendance. The professors found a high attendance percentage, but only a few students were physically present in the classroom!

Biometrics is not a fallacy but can compromise security.

• This post is not a tutorial on creating fingerprint spoofs and looting money using AePS but to warn people.

People must understand that biometrics is inherently unreliable and a secure-lowering authentication factor!

My LinkedIn newsletter, Learning Times Technology, contains more detailed articles on inconvenient truths of biometric recognition.

<> Originally published in my LinkedIn blog.

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About me

I practice STEM—science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. I secretly add the arts, literature, music, fine art, and movies to my list of interests. So, my new interest acronym becomes Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics, or STEAM.

I work to develop solutions in cybersecurity data privacy solutions, especially authentication technology and password security.

Some of the technologies I develop may directly apply to solving the private key-loss problem of blockchain applications, including cryptocurrencies.

Cheers!

Debesh Choudhury

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Tuesday, December 03, 2024