Fingerprint reader, cool, but...

Do you register all your 10 fingers? I can't. Two of my fingers could never get successful swipe, I mean never: I swiped perhaps 100 times So I've only registered 8 fingers.

Where are the fingerprints stored? How can you redo it? How to delete them? Any security hazard caused by it if someone stole your laptop (they'll have your fingerprint)?

 

I was able to register all 10 without trouble (I think it can store up to 20 [multiple users]). But 8 is enough (really 2 is all you need, and that's only if you lose one of your hands).

To the best of my knowledge the fingerprints are stored in the TPM. This is a secure chip on the motherboard that is independent of the hard drive, Windows, and everything else. This is an encrypted platform and part of the "trusted computing initiative", therefore any risk of somebody stealing your laptop and getting your prints is minimal. I think you can clear the fingerprints either in BIOS or the Client Security Solution software within Windows.

 

You shouldn't be worried about your fingerprints unless you are an important person with access to sensitive material . As jon said it is on the TPM chip and would take quite a lot of work and skill to remove them. Your common thief won't know how.

 

Would one of the following be able to erase the fingerprint?
a. System restore back to a date before you swiped your fingers?
b. Reinstallation of OS/reimage?

 

No. The only way is via bios or through the client security software that interacts with the TPM chip. The security would be pretty pointless if you could image a drive or replace it .

 

Then what happens if someone (less computer savvy than Jon and Jaredy ) stole my laptop? Without my password and fingers, can he

a. still use the fingerprint reader and register his fingerprints (replacing mine)?

b. turn off the fingerprint reader feature so password will be the only way to logon?

Not that I'm having real concerns, but out of pure curiosity

 

He might aswell chop your hand off and steal your fingers.

 

I use a Bios password/finger print. So you cannot boot my laptop unless you can at least login to that. But if you don't have a bios password and are in windows (logged in) I believe you could register some finger prints. That just means don't have the laptop logged it and have it ask for a password once it sleeps, idles, etc. BIOS passwords are best though.

 

The reader on Thinkpad is WAY WAY more better than Asus's one. =[

 

Just a note of caution about fingerprint security through the TPM. I had set this up on my HP 6710b to only allow login via fingerprint swipe (no passwords). Everything worked fine for about a week, when I went poking around in the Security Manager applet (or whatever HP calls the program to manage passwords and such that are tied to your fingerprint and profile). I decided to rename a couple of the entries for websites that I had saved login info for (kind of like how you might rename a bookmark from the default page title in your web browser). That was a mistake.

The next time I booted up, I swiped my finger like normal, and a message popped up telling me I hadn't yet registered any fingerprints. I was hosed. Since I had set it up to allow fingerprint swipe login only, I had no way of logging in. An hour and forty-five minutes on the phone with HP support and I reached the conclusion that just wiping the machine and starting over was about my only option (I'm not convinced the tech support guy was completely on the ball, but since I hadn't really accumulated much data yet that couldn't be replaced, I figured I'd cut my losses and start over.) After reinstalling Windows, I decided to fore go the fingerprint security and just stick to strong passwords.

The moral of the story is once it's set up and functional, don't monkey with it, even if you don't think what you're doing has anything to do with the core profile settings (HP's implementation is pretty confusing, so it's easy to mess something up, evidently). Secondly, if you're going to use fingerprint security and TPM, take some time to get to know and understand how it all works together.

I'll try it again on my next notebook, but you can bet I'll be more cautious.

 

Thanks for sharing your scary experience .

As I said I have only been able to register 8 fingers. Now suppose I want to go back and continue to try to register the remaining 2 fingers, how do I do that? I have no clue where to get back that fingerprint reader program

 

Yeah, I never quite completely got the whole TPM system figured out. Part of the problem, I'm sure, is the fact that I reformatted the drive when I got it and installed Windows Vista fresh, so I had to set all the TPM software and drivers up myself. It may have been fine on the factory image, for all I know.

 

Rich I had that happen on my Dell. All you had to do was go into safe mode and change the setting. I was back up and running in like 20 mins.
Sry to hear you had to go though all that just to log in

ym

 

A scenario: if someone is in possession of my thinkpad with my fingerprint stored on it, and if this person is a specialist in the thinkpads (e.g. designs thinkpads for lenovo!), is it possible for him to do something that is undeirable for me (for example will he be able to use my fingerprint information to somehow make it possible for him to log in my other laptops if he gets them, or use my fingerprint for God-knows-what-purposes--could be credit card related some day in future)?

 

I assume that the 2 fingers you cannot register are your pinky fingers. It is really not necessary to register those 2 fingers as they are kind of unreliable for the sensor to recognize. Your other 8 fingers are good enough.

 

lol you can get your finger print on a peice of tape and scan it , so yes if some one had your fingerprint he could get it to scan or he could crack the file and get your information

bios pass word are good 90% of people dont know how to crack them they are quite tough

 

When any of you sell your thinkpad, do you do anything with your fingerprint record on it? It seems you can't do anything anyway so whoever buys your laptop gets it?

 

I believe that you can wipe them from the fingerprint control center.

 

You can remove all stored fingerprints through BIOS, if I ever sold my x200 that's what I would do.

 

Mr. Moo,
Don't be ridiculous. The information has to be digitized with a D/A converter before its usuable.
-Renee