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Biometrics Are Making Espionage Harder
schwit1 sends this story from Foreign Policy: In the age of iris scans and facial recognition software, biometrics experts like to point out: The eyes don't lie. And that has made tradecraft all the more difficult for U.S. spies. After billions of dollars of investment — largely by the U.S. government — the routine collection and analysis of fingerprints, iris scans, and facial images are helping to ferret out terrorists and immigration fraudsters all over the world. But it has also made it harder for undercover agents to remain anonymous.
Gone are the days of entering a country with a false passport and wearing a wig and a mustache to hide your true identity. Once an iris scan is on record, it becomes nearly impossible to evade detection. 'In the 21st century, you can't do any of that because of biometrics,' said retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Gone are the days of entering a country with a false passport and wearing a wig and a mustache to hide your true identity. Once an iris scan is on record, it becomes nearly impossible to evade detection. 'In the 21st century, you can't do any of that because of biometrics,' said retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
... the whiny bitches in the "Espionage" field in the US aren't using it to protect against non-US spies as well, right?
He figured it out.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I can guarantee you that they can get around rental and fingerprint scans.
It is this kind of miss-information, found in this article, that makes people and governments feel secure in their security measures... all while they are being taken advantage of and not knowing it until a decade later.
Genuine question as I have no expertise in this whatsoever...would crafted contact lenses help out here?
As opposed to all the known felons that our government has our border control catch and releasing?
You don't say...
Nonsense! James O'Keefe has crossed the border masquarading as Osama bin Laden. And thousands of serious "undocumented Americans" do that without even any attempts to disguise themselves — and do not encounter much molestation neither during nor after the act.
TFA tells us, the technology to fight it is there. Now we just need the will to use it — instead we currently have a will not to.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Am I somehow supposed to feel bad that due to the extensive tracking by Big Brother of everything that we do that all of a sudden Big Brother is having a hard time of it?
Boo fucking hoo.
You assholes created this surveillance society. You don't get to bitch when the same fucking issues we all face suddenly bit you in your own ass.
That these clowns are now stepping in the pile of shit they helped to create is too fucking bad.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
a future black market in human irises.
"Hello, Mr. Yakamoto, welcome back to the Gap."
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
So the argument Snowden made it harder for the spies is really bullshit.
Because their own systems have made human spying impossible.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Because it sounds like you're placing nearly absolute confidence in a solution where a back-end server storing biometric template data is one compromise away from being used to make all your efforts completely useless. Gone are the days when someone intent on espionage needed a wig and fake mustache; now they can compromise your back-end server, overwrite some template data, and become a whole other person that you firmly believe should be trusted and provided all kinds of privileged access.
What you've done is come up with a system where the good guys can't change the passwords, but the bad guys can. It's among the dumbest ideas ever.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
that espionage has become a pan national effort were distrusting parties "agree" to spy on behalf on each other.
Actually faking an iris or a face is not that hard for a government that also has the option to let its diplomats do the border crossing.
Fugetives and organised crime will have to fly less or pay more!
the world needs fewer spies and more honest people.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
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There are people that are pushing for systems to be accessible from just about anywhere (read Internet). We see countless headlines about systems (government and corp) getting hacked and most of us on /. realize the systems never should have been remotely accessible in the first place. Spies will be hackers or visa versa .. however you want to look at it.
Keep the Classic Slashdot.
You are a bad country if you were doing it that way. Most spies are not registerd as such. They are people who have a job in an other country and do the spying on the side.
Crossing borders is not an issue. And if they are recognised as spies, they are burned and will not be used again.
FYI, James Bond is fiction.
And even if they would want to get into a country, they can. Look at people illegaly smuggeling others and succeed. Now imagine that you somehow make those illegal people legal.
And they could even give you a new passport. Happens all the time. New passport, ID and what not.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Gone are the days of entering a country with a false passport and wearing a wig and a mustache to hide your true identity.
And here are the days when you cross into the United States through our old proxy-war torn neighbours in south and central america, or our drug-war torn border buddy Mexico. Or how about just not coming at all, and hacking from abroad. Most corporate targets will gladly sweep your efforts and activities under the rug for you, as it could have dire consequences for their stock or earnings. Our government on the other hand, the institution we intentionally shut down twice and lost two credit ratings over along with 24 billion dollars, could care less. If youre an $evil_country for us, we'll insist you did it anyway, and if you arent, we'll find a reason to implicate you in a race to divert attention from our massive domestic surveillance program and illegal prison camp in cuba.
A senior Defense Department official said the policies have changed decisions about who can travel where â" and how often. âoeIt limits your movement,â said the official, who was not authorized to be named in discussing tradecraft and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Yes, yes it does limit your movement and thats the intention. For Occupy, planned parenthood, tea party, and second amendment protestors to be part of a massive biometric dragnet means they dont get to openly speak out against the government as is their first amendment right. For you to be so frightened to tell the public this as to insist anonymity in a public office is tantamount to treason.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Wow, I can't believe this is even worthy of a post.
This is bullshit, just someone looking for more money.
First off the NSA is tapped into everything, they are already spying on all of us.
Second, the NSA can hack into any computers across the world that is storing the biometric data and change the data.
Third, you rarely have spies that no one knows about, and honestly, it's easy enough to make those. You can find someone in the twenties/thirties that have never worked for the government in anything, make some fake data about them, and suddenly have a new spy. If you keep going to the military or FBI, or those sort of people for spies then yes, it a lot easier to figure out.
Fourth, It's election years.
Be seeing you...
Not sure if intelligence agencies can fake out IRIS and other biometric data. Shouldn't be that difficult?
I guess they'll have to do it the old-fashioned way, then: sleep with someone who knows the secrets.
Except that biometrics is the data thought to be from an iris scan, not from a validation per se. Oh, that's why we should keep such data secret. It's secret so it's truly yours.
US spies can now change their irises.
You have no idea as to where the real vulnerabilities are, do you?
Sad, sad, pitiful fools.
Biometrics won't save you, physical measures won't do you no good
When the humint fails, ain't no place that's safe.
Now go back and learn proper tradecraft.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
> Once an iris scan is on record, it becomes nearly impossible to evade detection.
Um, not really, just the techniques change. When you have a "foolproof" method of identity, (in this case where you compare some biometric data stored in a database somewhere,) the tendency is to believe the method of identity, without once considering that everything is predicated on the database being correct.
And so, instead of wearing a wig and affecting a different accent and different posture and style of walk and all of those things Sherlock Holmes used to do when he went into disguise, you don't have to change any feature of yourself at all -- you just have to change the database. This is especially easy when your organization *owns* the data, but isn't impossible even if the imposter you're trying to field needs credentials in someone else's database.
C'mon, we're geeks. Several vectors come to mind.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Nothing magical makes technology work just for the US federal government. If technology exists, others can use it, too. What is so hard about this concept? A better question to ask is why should we trust a government that wants this ability all to itself?
They can be identified and their locations revealed. You take the good with the bad.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
You really haven't been paying attention, have you?
And you know it.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Not just spies, but also undercover copss and FBI. Nongovernment databases, license plates, iris scans...
I agree. I always think the opposite when a spy opens mouth :D
Possibly the fight has moved the playing field.
Somebody, somewhere has no eyes. Old people have worn out fingerprints. Because of this there's a way round it. And, of course the battle just moves to compromising the databases.
In a few years time we might find out more. Shame not to know now bit with spooks you just got to get used to curbing your curiousity all the time.
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I am afraid you are not the one really listening. The NSA as gained "god" like status and magical powers by those looking to be critical of the agency in general and it's specific actions. Common sense has been abandoned by the professional protesters who refuse to address the technology required to spy on everyone in the world and seem to think the NSA possesses the unlimited manpower to analyze every bit of data passing over the internet. And NSA operations in foreign countries are not constrained by the US Constitution. Every foreign intelligence service in the world operates the same way. Embassies are were you will find intelligence operators and local asset handlers because they can always use diplomatic immunity if caught in an embarrassing situation. The only thing the host countries can do is demand the diplomat-intelligence officer leave the country. And let me know when a single US citizen on US sovereign territory is detained or otherwise harmed by the actions of the NSA. And that doesn't include those accused of breaking long standing US laws by dumping classified information about US foreign intelligence operations. If Snowden had stuck with releasing only information about domestic programs he could be back in the US a free man by using the foreign related information as leverage to drop any pending charges. The US would have taken that deal in a second. Instead he decided to be a rock star fugitive living in the Russia under constant surveillance by the FSB. He also has to worry about the US and Russia coming to an arrangement where the Russian government hands him over for something they want or need from the US government. US: Would you like to see some of the financial sanctions against a few of your wealthy oligarchs go away?
Russia: What would you want in return?
US: The extradition of one of our citizens.
Russia: You want to pick him up or should we deliver him?.