Chaos Computer Club Claims It Can Reproduce Fingerprints From People's Photos

An anonymous reader writes Chaos Computer Club, Europe's largest association of hackers, claims it can reproduce your fingerprints from a couple of photos that show your fingers. At the 31st annual Chaos Computer Club convention in Hamburg, Germany, Jan Krissler, also known by his alias "Starbug," explained how he copied the thumbprint of German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen. Because these fingerprints can be used for biometric authentication, Starbug believes that after his talk, "politicians will presumably wear gloves when talking in public." Even better than gummi bears.

Comments

Biometrics

[Anonymous Coward]

If you running a security system that only uses fingerprints you are a fool.

In a security area it should also at least be protected by a code/pattern + prints + tag/card/key, when each piece is scanned/entered and image/photo of the person wanting access is displayed to your security personnel who can then either approve/deny access.

Biometics alone is insufficient as is very easy to pick up prints, even retinal scanners can be fooled with enough tech, A 4 way security system is better but not foolproof, there is no such thing as 100% secure but you can make is so difficult as to deter most people.

And if you're protecting your tablet/laptop with only a fingerprint you need to change immediately a pattern/code/pin is far more secure, fingerprints have been dupable for years with little/no skill/tech, in fact its been shown that you can pull a print off a laptop/tablet keyboard/touchscreen to use to break into the device.