Slashdot Mirror
Japan Researchers Warn of Fingerprint Theft From 'Peace' Sign (phys.org)
Tulsa_Time quotes a report from Phys.Org: Could flashing the "peace" sign in photos lead to fingerprint data being stolen? Research by a team at Japan's National Institute of Informatics (NII) says so, raising alarm bells over the popular two-fingered pose. Fingerprint recognition technology is becoming widely available to verify identities, such as when logging on to smartphones, tablets and laptop computers. But the proliferation of mobile devices with high-quality cameras and social media sites where photographs can be easily posted is raising the risk of personal information being leaked, reports said. The NII researchers were able to copy fingerprints based on photos taken by a digital camera three meters (nine feet) away from the subject.
Fix your fucking website already
German defense minister got her fingerprints "stolen" in a similar fashion two years ago.
It's the V for victory
I RTFA and it's very light on details. You basically have to guess that:
1. The researchers used an expensive 'digital camera' with a good optical zoom.
2. The lighting is just right.
3. They zoomed in on the fingerprints.
Otherwise the GP post is right, this really wouldn't apply to 99.999+% of photos taken.
Or, take a picture of something from 3meters away and see what you get when you load that image onto a computer and zoom in to it.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
I guess the horns "\m/" sign is also affected, even though you're displaying only your index and pinky fingers. The vulcan greeting sign "_\\//" would be the worst to photograph, since it displays all the fingerprints.
Actually guys, this is not only possible - it's old news.
And, no, it doesn't necessarily need stupendously perfect conditions:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/tech...
The sign they are talking about is the V of Vrijheid and Victoire, after the Dutch word for Freedom and the French word for Victory. People in occupied Belgium used it during WWII. The gesture was used as a response to the Nazi salute, and was used every time the Germans lost a battle (the news was spread by the BBC). This way the people managed to scare the German soldier, and indirectly instructed them to be nice and to not commit war crimes. This sign was adopted in both the Netherlands and France and was even picked up by Churchill who made the symbol for the allies (after having done it wrong the first few times, he showed the back of his hands which was a way to insult other people in the British lower classes).