Slashdot Mirror
Subverting Fingerprinting
squizzar writes in with news of a 27 year old Chinese woman who was discovered to have had her fingerprints surgically swapped between hands in order to fool Japanese immigration. "It is Japan's first case of alleged biometric fraud, but police believe the practice may be widespread. ... The apparent ability of illegal migration networks to break through hi-tech controls suggests that other countries who fingerprint visitors could be equally vulnerable — not least the United States, according to BBC Asia analyst Andre Vornic." Time for some biometric escalation. Could iris scans be subverted as easily?
The tech for swapping fingerprints apparently exists. I don't know anybody swapping out eyeballs.
However, the open question that TFA brings up is whether or not you can skin graft somebody elses fingerprints on to you. (Or vice versa). You can do allograft skin grafts, at least temporarily, so it's feasible.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
So the only way this person's surgery is actually worth anything is if fingerprint scans care which hand the prints are one? I would think that if you switched your hands' fingerprints, you'd still have the same prints, which could be picked up easily enough as long as the scan tests the prints against your right and left hands both.
Not to mention, as I'm sure someone has by now, they would probably notice the scars. I would think it would be more worth it to get someone else's fingerprints, if you could.
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
Is it really fraud? Is there some promise that everyone has made to never make alterations to their bodies?
(I think it's dumb, but I don't see how it is fraud, she didn't actually impersonate anyone or anything)
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
How about a public (anonymised) repository of fingerprints. The idea is this: I can't change my prints, nor can I get back control once the government has taken them. But I could publish them to the world. That makes the print very easy for anyone else to fake. In other words, plausible deniability.
It does add up. And some people have scars on their fingers for non-nefarious purposes. The tip of one of my thumbs was cut off in an accident and then sewn back on. I fly in and out of Japan all the time. All I need is more Mickey Mouse at immigration.
I has psoriasis when I was fingerprinted for a DOD lab job. My fingerprints were temporarily gone and all I had was thick smooth skin on my fingertips. I even told them I had no prints and they didn't care. My print cards looked like heel prints, they wouldn't match my hands today at all.
I also had a hard time holding onto things with smooth fingertips.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
And that is why physical keys are better.
;).
Just buy insurance for the stolen car.
While insurance might compensate you for your lost finger, most people are more attached to their fingers than they are to their car
And even if you're more attached to your car, this sort of system will cause you to lose both.