The one product I want Apple to make? A Touch ID hard drive

[67952]

I love Touch ID on the iPhone and I'm sure it works just as well on the new MBPs. But though Macs and macOS have an insane level of security features built-in, I always thought they were all for not if you backed up your data to an external hard drive. After all (as far as I know) macOS does not have any easy way to keep the contents of an external hard drive encrypted unless you enter a password to unlock it. This means if anyone really wants your data, they should just try stealing your backup drives and not your Macs.

I always thought that since Touch ID works so well and FileVault on macOS works so well, it would be great for Apple to make a Touch ID external hard drive that wouldn't allow any computer it was plugged in to access/unencrypt its files without authenticating with your fingerprint first. That way even if someone stole the drive, they couldn't get the data.

 

[DanDilla]

You can already encrypt your backup.
Since Apples strategy is to ask for a password after reboot a touchid drive seems very unlikely.

 

[Goatllama]

Well, there are other hard drives available that have fingerprint encryption, but I agree that an Apple developed one would be nice to have as well.

 

[ZapNZs]

With the way TouchID has historically worked, to my understanding you would still have to manually enter a password each time you connect the drive - this is an intentional security feature. So having TouchID would be limited to if you wanted to lock a specific hard drive but only after you have plugged it in and entered the password - but if you powered down or disconnected the drive at any point, you would need to manually re-enter the password the next time you plug it in - hence limiting the usefulness of this significantly.



See page 7-9
https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf

 

[Stefan johansson]

Fingerprint encryption might be good for some,but I had enough problems with it to avoid it.
A cut or bruise on the actual finger,can easily make your device inaccessible for a few days or more.
For people that often get light finger injuries during work,a fingerprint scanner is not really that good,the normal access number code can be typed with either one of 10 fingers and if necessary 10 toes,fact is,that certain brands of canned sausages also work.

 

[44267547]

Fingerprint encryption might be good for some,but I had enough problems. A cut or bruise on the actual finger,can easily make your device inaccessible for a few days or more.

That's why most finger print sensors requires a second print on file if that happens where a laceration or bruise causes an interruption in the verification process. It's the same way on the iPhone for a secondary print and even the agency that I work for uses biometric scanning and requires multiple back up prints. It's common practice.

 

[Stefan johansson]

That's why most finger print sensors requires a second print on file if that happens where a laceration or bruise causes an interruption in the verification process. It's the same way on the iPhone for a secondary print and even the agency that I work for uses biometric scanning and requires multiple back up prints. It's common practice.

I know,but for me,it's still easier to just type the number.. guess I'm not a very big fan of complicated encryption systems,as it's usually easier to remember and use a normal access code.

 

[44267547]

I know,but for me,it's still easier to just type the number.. guess I'm not a very big fan of complicated encryption systems,as it's usually easier to remember and use a normal access code.

I don't disagree. I actually have a fairly good memory and I prefer alpha – numeric passcode encryption. It seems to be my preference over biometric.

 

[Stefan johansson]

I don't disagree. I actually have a fairly good memory and I prefer alpha – numeric passcode encryption. It seems to be my preference over biometric.

Yeah,and with gloved or oily fingers,you just can't use a screen stylus to unlock fingerprint security.

 

[Fishrrman]

Not. Going. To. Happen. Ever.

Apple doesn't even sell -regular- hard drives. That ought to tell you somethin'…