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?
This method is much more compact.
"other countries who fingerprint visitors could be equally vulnerable — not least the United States", according to BBC Asia analyst Andre Vornic.
Vornic needs to do some research. Criminals in the US have been attempting to surgically alter or mask their fingerprints since at least the 1930s, and the FBI has been researching the techniques since then as well. I remember reading about this in a book from the 60's, where a counterfeiter surgically swapped his prints around, and the FBI recognized them, out of order, and matched them back up with the original fingers.
And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
True story:
I worked at a video game developer once who had biometric finger scanners to clock in and out, but required you to type in your employee number first.
"If it has my fingerprint, shouldn't it know my employee number?"
So I started playing with it. I started with the same finger on the same hand. It took it. Then a different finger on the same hand. Yup. It took a different finger on a different hand. And then we got creative.
Someone Else's finger? Check. Elbow? Check. Toe? Check. Tongue? Check.
In fact, we finally found the limit of the system. It took a warm hot dog pressed up against the fingerprint scanner, but not a cold one. A lot of my faith in fingerprint biometrics was shattered then and there. I since dated someone who had a fingerprint scanner on her computer, though that only seemed to let me trough wrongly some of the time.
Another thing we learned? Co-workers don't appreciate it when you lick the thumb scanner that everyone has to clock in with.
The ______ Agenda