We know conventional passwords aren't the most secure, especially if they're re-used across multiple sites. Biometrics are often a quicker and more effective approach, but most older devices don't come with fingerprint sensors or iris scanners. Still, we don't want anyone to be able to guess our PC password. Now, Synaptics thinks it can make our old laptops more secure with its new fingerprint USB module, the Turnkey, which slips into any Windows PC's USB port. Users just have to enroll with their print, pop the USB into the port, and it'll become the primary way they'll gain access to their notebook.

Turnkey is FIDO-certified, meaning it's been vetted and meets certain security and privacy standards. What's unclear, however, is whether a hacker could just pull out the fingerprint scanner and attempt to log into the laptop with a normal password. It doesn't appear to lock in place.