Proof against fools, perhaps, but not against someone with a few smarts.
Members of the Chaos Computer Club of Germany managed to acquire the fingerprint of German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble and published it in their club magazine The Datenschleuder.
Their point? That biometric data is not a safe means of identification because it can be easily stolen when used in public applications such as Germany's E-Pass.
They point out that it would be easy to steal fingerprints by simply, oh, say following someone around in a supermarket and snatching things that person has touched and then put back on the shelf, particularly items in glass packaging.
That's the gist of it. The linked article is a Google translation so it's a little rough. The original article in German can be found here.
via EFF
Members of the Chaos Computer Club of Germany managed to acquire the fingerprint of German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble and published it in their club magazine The Datenschleuder.
Their point? That biometric data is not a safe means of identification because it can be easily stolen when used in public applications such as Germany's E-Pass.
They point out that it would be easy to steal fingerprints by simply, oh, say following someone around in a supermarket and snatching things that person has touched and then put back on the shelf, particularly items in glass packaging.
That's the gist of it. The linked article is a Google translation so it's a little rough. The original article in German can be found here.
via EFF
Mythbusters tried it, and after several false starts they got it to work.
ReplyDeleteThe copy worked better on the high end scanners than on the cheaper modles- if i remember right.