Hey everyone, Daniel here from TwinBytes with another quick video for you.
This time on the Windows Hello and the security of that logging into your computer.
There's not a lot of information about it, so in this short video
I'm going to be talking about the truth behind the Windows Hello feature
So stick around...
So there's always people looking for more secure ways of signing into your
accounts. I've done a number of videos on two-factor authentication which I'll
link to above here, and you can check those out; but one of the features built
in with Windows 10 is Windows Hello. Now there's a number of ways that you can
make use of Windows Hello. You can use a PIN or a Fingerprint if you have a
fingerprint...if you have a fingerprint reader or you can use facial recognition
if your computer is capable of doing that. They all basically do the same thing.
When you go in to learn more, it really doesn't tell you anything
other than using PIN or the Windows Hello is a more secure way of signing in
than using your password. It doesn't say why. So I had to dig into this a bit more
to find out why or how is it more secure. Even with that explanation, I don't
truly see a lot of benefits to it. So first of all, the reason which this other
video that I saw is short and explains what it is, why it's more secure and
basically when you use your password to sign-in, it synchronizes that password to
a server and authenticates against that, and confirms that your sign-in works and
you're able to log in. But using Windows Hello, whether it's a PIN or a facial
recognition or fingerprint reader, it's local to your device. It doesn't get sent
through the Internet to any server. So that can't be compromised that way. So if
anyone were to get your password, that can't be used anywhere except for on
your physical device. So that is what's supposed to make it more secure.
Here's my problem with it.
The Windows password that you use, is synchronized with the Microsoft account.
So you still have a Microsoft password that's out there in the cloud, which can
still be compromised. So that really doesn't help prevent any hacking into
your Microsoft account by having a PIN on your computer. If somebody was to
steal your laptop for example, and you have a PIN on there instead of a
password, they wouldn't be able to hack the PIN in the same way because the
password is in the cloud and the PIN is local to the device. However, when you
sign into the computer, there's a little option at the bottom there, that you can
switch back and forth between sign-in with a pin and sign-in with a password.
So they can simply switch it back to signing with the password and sign in
that way completely bypassing the PIN which makes the PIN completely useless
in that case. The second thing is trying to avoid your Microsoft account
from being hacked by logging in with your Microsoft password and having a PIN;
Your password still exists out there and is still required to sign into any
Microsoft service. The PIN is only used for your computer not for all Microsoft
services that you may do. So you still have a password that can be used to
sign-in from other devices. So having that PIN doesn't stop a hacker from
logging into your Microsoft account from another device. So my thoughts on this
whole Windows Hello thing, having a PIN or a fingerprint reader or facial
recognition is really just an easier way of logging in. You can have a
more complex password for your Microsoft account that's going to be a lot harder
to be hacked by brute force attack or any dictionary attacks. So you would have
a simple PIN instead to remember. So that makes it easier to sign in and because
it's local to the device, it's not being sent across the network.
So if there was any man in the middle attack,
if you're sitting in a coffee shop, you're typing in your password, no one's gonna
be sitting there watching the password go across the network at that point
because it's local to your device. That's the only benefit that I really see with
the Windows Hello features; and I haven't found any other evidence about how this
could be possibly more secure? how can it protect your Microsoft account? and how
can it protect your computer? I've already proven that it doesn't protect
your computer any better than not using it because you can still bypass the PIN.
I was able to successfully add one reboot login as the other password that
was there by default and then delete the PIN. Having it protect your
Microsoft account, there's only just that, avoiding the man-in-the-middle attack.
If anyone else has any comments or feedback or ideas of how Windows Hello is
possibly any more secure than not using it at all, please let me know in the
comments below, because I see no benefit to using this feature at all, other than
a convenience factor of a easier password to login with and avoiding a
man-in-the-middle attack, every time you sign in.
That's it for this video.
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Alright, thanks, and see you in the next one. Bye for now.