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OPM Says 5.6 million Fingerprints Stolen In Cyberattack
mschaffer writes: The Office of Personnel Management data breach that happened this summer just got a little worse. The OPM now says that 5.6 million people's fingerprints were stolen as part of the hacks. The Washington Post reports: "That's more than five times the 1.1 million government officials estimated when the cyberattacks were initially disclosed over the summer. However, OPM said Wednesday the total number of those believed to be caught up in the breaches, which included the theft of the Social Security numbers and addresses of more than 21 million former and current government employees, remains the same."
oops!
And this is why fingerprints are NOT good credentials.
In stealing the real finger prints. Should have randomly wlked the databases and reassign all finger-prints (even better individual fingers) to other persons, also other info (partial phone numbers, name, dates, what not) . So database would be worthless - trancate the SQL database logs a few times to be sure. :)
See if the backup actually works or not. :)
If you do not restore your database, how do you know it works??
ouch, gonna be hard to patch that.
With this incessant rampant identity theft, pretty soon we're all going to be Anonymous because we can't prove who we are any more.
(See, your identity is stolen, so you don't have one, he pedantically explained the joke in proper nerd fashion.)
Just change the passwords associated with the accounts...
Oh wait...can't change those fingerprints so easily.
THIS is why I hate giving my fingerprints to companies (ie datacenters) who require them for access.
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
how hard is it to just change your fingerprints every few months? i mean, seriously - if you aren't taking this kind of security risk seriously, you don't belong in humanity.
Relying on any so-called completely unique feature of every human being that may be currently impossible or at least extraordinarily difficult to replicate makes the implicit assumption that no technology could potentially invented that will make forging it possible or viable.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I demand that we vigorously close the barn door by implementing a robust biometric authentication infrastructure to prevent this from happening again!
Just change the fingerprints on all accounts and you're safe again.
This same song-and-dance seems to play out with every big hack now:
Week one:
"It was just a few people who had some data limited compromised"
Week two:
It was just a few people who had most of their data compromised, but not their passwords
Week three:
"It was a lot of people, who had most of their data compromised, but not their passwords"
Week four:
"They got everything on everyone"
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
This can't be stealing - the originals are still there !
It's just that they made a copy of the data.
--- RIAA
The Chinese have my background investigative report and my fingerprints for my government job. Next they will be shutting down the government for no reason.
Very detailed histories of a persons family, including SSN's, were part of the heist via Form SF-86. Being a longtime defense department contractor whose security clearance details were likely compromised I am pissed. The forms included personal info from friends gracious enough to vouch for my veracity as a trusted agent for the US government. We were expected to protect paper and electronic copies of this form as we would other sensitive data. The joke appears to be on us.
You can have my fingerprints when you pry them from my cold, dead.....oh.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
No problem. Just revoke th... Oh.
DIS GON BE GUD
Just reset your fingerprint, this time please use numbers, letters and other symbols.
...and then place them at a scene?
Probably would need to mirror-print a lipid based "ink" onto a temporary flexible substrate.
At the scene one could transfer/rub the resultant print onto a fixed location item...
That would put the person at the scene...
Something to beware of methinks...
Other People's Money
....but over the last years, I've started to really cheer in glee every time there's a horrible breach of sensitive data.
Only after a percentage of people are thoroughly harmed and screwed by the escape of sensitive information, will the world realize that there simply is no sound way to keep secrets safe. It is a logical fallacy for one to think they can make a system that is perfectly secure as every measure has a countermeasure
Therefore, the only option that will remain after a sufficient number of people get fleeced, fucked and flogged will be to never collect it in the first place. To collect it, is to invite evil-doers to an all you can eat buffet.
So celebrate the evil blackhats of the world!! Huzzah! For us to see progress, they must steal their billions, destroy lives, maim murder and pillage! Sure, we technology buffs understand risks and speak loudly about the NSAs, Facebooks and all the other "user abusers" of the world. But we clever geeks can never convince the masses to change their ways because our message is inconvenient.
No sir. Until enough good people are fucked, the assholes of the world will keep winning the minds of innocent fools with lies like "If you've done nothing wrong you should have nothing to hide". How about this one, "We collect your information in order to better serve you". Orwell is spinning in his grave.
Ending my rant: Good people need encryption and privacy the most, but they won't realize this until they've been burned by fire. So burn baby burn.
Good. I'm glad they were stolen. I hate opacity. I hope everything online gets stolen, even the stuff that was stolen should be stolen again.
Anybody know what dates the fingerprints were taken that were jacked? I was last fingerprinted by DoD in 2008 and DHS in 2013.
Unfortunately our so called leaders are nothing more then paycheck loafs. Do as little as possible, treat their job as a vacation and try and spend money as if it grows on tree's. When you have as much security issues from the White House to Social Security and beyond. Your talking about some serious lapses in protecting information. Then it pretty much explains the whole Hillary Clinton email fiasco because nobody in Washington takes security seriously. Does anybody even witness anyone in Washington DC even addressing these issues? No, they work to cover them up not fix them. Let's have a committee on these issues, let's spend millions doing a study on security. Let's throw some money to one of our "friends" to come up with a strategy on fixing this issue. At least in the private sector things get done, people get fired. In government you get excuses, more political posturing and finger pointing and nothing gets solved. The problems with digital information is very real and yet its becoming the way to store information. Its cheaper, its quick to reference, and in some ways it is a good thing. But not securing it properly is like leaving you car unlocked in a bad neighborhood. At some point, somebody will steal it.
How to fake fingerprints, in case you want to know what to do with them.
Building Better Software
So what? It's not the person, it's data ABOUT the person -- in other words, metadata.
And everyone knows that metadata isn't real data; that's why the government is busy collecting so much of it.
------
(Yes, I realize metadata would be where you actually found those fingerprints. But look-- soon you'll be able to find them everywhere!)
((And besides, I thought "privacy was dead, get over it."))
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
>"OPM Says 5.6 million Fingerprints Stolen In Cyberattack"
Which is why fingerprints and DNA should *NEVER* be given, taken, or stored as biometrics.
Deep vein scan. THAT is the only reasonable biometric. It is of almost no value if stolen, can't be misused easily, isn't left all over the place like fingerprints and DNA, is quite unique, contains no sensitive information about the person, is very difficult to fake, can't be easily collected or read without the user's knowledge, is fast and easy to collect and also to use.
Anyone else remember how Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange let us know a few years back about how Hillary Clinton was orchestrating a large scale ring of snooping fingerprints and credit cards from the United Nations? I do.
To steal a Mercedes http://m.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/04/fingerprint_merc_chop/
If the target value is high enough...
I was worried when I read this, but then I checked and I still have my fingerprints.
-- Make America hate again!