Biometrics at the Statue of Liberty

gurps_npc writes "There is an interesting CNN article about the Statue of Liberty finally opening again (it was closed since 9/11 for security reasons). They have increased security to 'airport levels', and offer lockers for people to rent, partly to keep those incredibly dangerous objects like swiss army knives away from the fragile Statue of Liberty. But instead of keys, the lockers use fingerprint readers to open and close (approximately one reader for every 50 lockers)." The article notes that the design was dictated by the Transportation Security Administration.

Comments

do you have to use a finger?

[way2trivial]

would any sufficiently swirly object work?
a knuckle for example?

Re:do you have to use a finger?

[Maestro4k]

• would any sufficiently swirly object work?

Better yet use someone else's finger! Seriously enough I saw an episode of that one show from last year (can't remember the name but it's a crime drama about national security) where this one terrorist killed a guy in another country, then came to the US with the guy's fingers in baggies strapped around his waist. He then boiled them to get the skin off, glued it to his fingers and used that to work on a bomb he was making. In that case his purpose was to try to make it look like the other guy did it and start a war between Israel and Palestine but I see no reason it wouldn't also work in general. Kill some innocent bystander, get their finger skin off and attach it to yours then put your bomb in a locker. If it's found or the database survives the blast the trace goes back to that person. Then the FBI wastes months trying to find the body the real terrorist disposed of while the real terrorist escapes the country.

Not to mention that a while back it was shown that you could defeat many biometric fingerprint scanners like this with silly putty, has that been fixed?

So anyone feel any safer with them using fingerprint scanners for those lockers? Even if they do run them against the FBI database automatically (not really confirmed or disproven so who knows) it isn't going to help against a dedicated terrorist. It's a lot like computer and network security. You can do a lot to make it harder for someone to break in and that'll deter all the casual attackers and the script kiddies. But if someone really wants in your system they'll get in unless you manage to trace their identity and get them arrested first. Unless the fingerprint scanner is referenced against the FBI database, the matches are made in milliseconds, heavily armed LE is dispacted in minutes AND the terrorist uses their real fingerprints (or actually uses a locker) then this is all for naught.

Which locker did I use?

[ack154]

Others forgot their locker number upon their return, or didn't remember which finger they had used to check it out.

That would be my worry. At least with oldschool lockers, you would get a big fat key with a number on it, so you knew what was yours. Unfortunately, there's no mention if there's a receipt printed out or anything with a locker number and/or time on it or something.

Re:Which locker did I use?

[BagOBones]

Once you come back and scan, your locker will unlock.. Shouldn't be hard to tell yours from all the other locked ones.

They have passcode style ones at the mall here, but it isn't hard to tell which locker is yours.. As soon as you enter your code you can here the door unlock.

I don't have a problem with this

[Elecore]

As long as they don't connect your fingerprint to your name on site, then I don't mind being checked against a terrorist database. I'm not a terrorist. If they stored my fingerprint afterwards and kept it connected to my name, then yes, of course I'd be against it, but I HIGHLY doubt this happens.

honest question

[Spytap]

What if you just push your knuckel against the reader, does it just read the patterns on whatever is placed against it or does it know whether the opbject on top of it is a fingerprint or not?

Re:honest question

[JasperHW]

I don't know the details of the biometrics they are using, but my work laptop has a fingerprint scanner on it. You pretty much have to use your finger because it does shape recognition as well as the swirls. The print left by a finger full of soft tissue being pushed down is a lot different than the print of a bony knuckle being pushed down.

Plastics...

[eXtro]

Silly Putty can fool some consumer fingerpring scanners. I'd think that this would be immune to something that low-tech but if you could find a plastic with the right characteristics you should be able to make a fake finger.

Curious about the technology architecture

[Wingchild]

Boy howdy, I'm wondering how this product was designed. While using a fingerprint-based system is entirely convenient and obviates the need for keys and coinage exchange units (and hey, it's tricky to lose a finger!), I start to wonder if there's anything else the equipment is conveniently tied into on the back-end.

One really nice use would be to have chemical detectors and similar rigged up with the lockers to prevent someone from storing a bomb inside them -- and hey, if you find a prohibited item that needs to be turned over to law enforcement, you already have a fingerprint to run against the National Crime Information Computer (NCIC, the same one used for background checks for security clearances and the like).

Seeing as how similar biometric systems are already in place for people with visas entering the country, why not tie it all together into a system that Homeland Defense can monitor? Ooh, I get all tingly thinking about the implications here.

So... anyone have any additional information on the company that did the manufacturing for this system, or any ideas on what the internal architecture is like? Inquiring privacy-minded people want to know. ^^

Re:This is neither "rights" nor "online".

[pjt33]

You expect a story in YRO to be about your rights online? In my judgement two of the past 10 YRO stories fit the bill. ("Forgent Squeezing Money Out Of JPEG, Other Patents" and "Net Phone Customers Brace For 'VoIP Spam'". An argument could be made for "Jerry Falwell Wins Dispute Over Fallwell.com" as a third).

Convienently for terrorists

[g0bshiTe]

There is a Gift Shop located across from the lockers where they can purchase a package of Gummi Bears to bypass the biometric locks on the lockers.
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/25/131 5254&tid=172

Re:Convienently for terrorists

[AndroidCat]

Why bother getting that fancy? You don't have to duplicate an existing fingerprint, you just have to present the same pattern to the lock when imprinting it the first time and then unlocking it later. I can see a market for artificial "finger-keys" that restore some abilities like transferability ("I'll take the kids to the washroom, you get the stuff. Here's my key.") and untrackability. (Buy a few hands of keys and throw each one away after use.)

No doubt this will be declared a subversive act.

My fingerprint reader story

[JessLeah]

I was once going to a client's data center at Globix. I was carrying a particularly nifty, but heavy, item that I found on the streets of Chinatown (an old Commodore monitor-- which, as I surmised, was still in working order!). Because I was holding this bulky object, I fumbled a bit as I pressed my finger to the scanner.

I was still let in.

So I went in, put the monitor down, and came back out to experiment. I tried another finger. It worked... I tried a knuckle. It worked...

Finally, I held my hair (long hair) back, leaned down, and gently pressed the tip of my NOSE to the scanner plate.

It worked.

Moral of the story: Biometric security is sometimes just so much heehaw, and it does malfunction (and yields false-positives as well as false-negatives).

Fingerprint being used at Paramount Parks

[Chanc_Gorkon]

We went to Paramount's King's Island in Cincinnatti and they used a finger print to make sure noone else used our ticket on the second day. At first you think so what, but what if you wer ecamping at teh campground and someone snuck in your tent and stole it or someone picked yuor pocket when in the park? While I think there are better ways, you still have to collect something and a fingerprint is better then a urine sample or god forbid blood samples.

Re:Differing Slashdot summaries

[Anonymous Coward]

Who cares if they keep a record of it? They know that fingerprint X was at the Statue of Liberty at time Y. How is that any different than security cameras that also know that image X was taken at time Y?

Re:MOD Parent Overdramatic

[WindBourne]

While you may see it as overdramatic, it is precisely these conditions that our forefathers were opposed to. In addition, Eisenhower's last speech warns as well. Historically, countries are not stripped of rights overnight. It is a slow process in response to some dramtic pressure. Rarely is the pressure point that bad, yet, ppl will give up control to get rid of it. Witness over time:

• how countries have tried to bring back monarchies
• How about how the communist came to power in old Russia
• Hitler was actually voted in.
• per Colin Powell and Richard Clarke, in the last 2 years, we have had the military planning how to take over the government iff we have another attack.
• I was talking to somebody (a respectable state-level politician) who claims that the draft will be brought back immeadiatly after the election (this time with women, but who knows).

Overdramtic? I am not so sure about that.

But I have to agree with the poster who speaks about using boxes to change things.

1. Soap box
2. Election Box
3. Jury Box
4. Ammo Box

Re:Have you been awake for the last three years?

[gurps_npc]

You should complete that sentence. "Oh wait ... it would fail - just like the 4th plane failed."

4 planes were hijacked, only 3 buildings were hit. The last plane failed not they forgot to bring box cutters, but because the passengers realized what was really going on and took action. The presence of the horribly dangerous box-cutters did NOT help the terrorists in any way shape or form. They could have taken the first 3 planes just by claiming they had a bomb and that they would blow up the plane unless the pilots left the cockpit and let them fly it.

They succeeded in the first 3 only because we were complacent and they had surprise on there side, not because they took tiny sharp instruments to threaten us with.

The second they lost element of surprise than the heroes of that flight LAUGHED at their puny box cutters, fought them, and WON.

If they try it again, this time with 4 ft long, razor sharp titanium alloy long swords on a plane, they would STILL be unable to crash that plane into a building because they lost the surprise.

The current anti-blade regulations are ridiculous, do not in any way increase security. I personally have seen people sneak pocket knives past them. In fact, if the airlines were to issue everyone on board a 1 ft short sword, I think it would do more towards preventing terrorist attacks than attempting to block "box cutters". If it wern't for drunk people and children, this probably would already be a rule.

Re:I was just there...

[casuist99]

It's becoming harder and harder for me to believe this is the country I live in. America is supposed to stand for individual freedoms and liberty. We're supposed to be the "melting pot" accepting all immigrants (with reasonable quotas) with open arms.

I tell you, if you watch the new Manchurian Candidate, you see some of what really bothers me. The back-story, if you will, is full of national events that are on the verge of actually occurring. Armed army units patrolling streets, every monument in DC guarded, etc. These things really really bother me and make me wonder where the America I know has gone.

The president controls federal troops in the US as well as abroad. The Posse Commitatus act is a good law. I wish it was still upheld. A war on an ethereal enemy gives the president an opportunity to corrupt the constitution and gain unreasonable powers. When are americans going to get their heads out of their butts, stop being afraid of their own shadows, and hold elected officials responsible to the Constitution?

Re:I was just there...

[earthforce_1]

Yes, but there have been attacks:

One nut rammed his truck into the front steps at parliament hill a few years back.

A crazed soldier walked into the Quebec legislature 20 years back, and shot the place up - it was just chance that he screwed up the time the legislature was in session, and arrived when the chamber was empty.

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-70-1308-7634-11/tha t_ was_then/disasters_tragedies/lortie_gunman

I guess you could also count the time back in 1916 when the mob burned the centre block to a gutted shell. Despite that, I am glad they don't turn the place into a fortress.

Re:Fine, but acknowledge Clinton sucked ass, too

[black mariah]

You're a dumbass. Getting rid of tax cuts for the wealthy is just a little bit different than any of the things you mentioned. Fucking moron.