Tue Apr 1 21:52:57 UTC 2008

Biometric overreliance …

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Looks like the Chaos Computer Club is having fun. The German interior minister, Wolfgang Schauble, is a strong proponent of storing biometric data (specifically fingerprints) in things like the RFID chip in passports …

''Each individual's fingerprints are unique … it is possible to conduct biometric checks, which will also prevent authentic passports from being misused by unauthorized persons who happen to look like the person in the passport photo.''

A very confident statement, and not wholly untrue. But now anyone can have their own copy of Wolfgang's fingerprint (probably the right index finger), as the Chaos Computer Club have published it in the latest issue of Die Datenschleuder. Not only is the fingerprint printed on the page, it is also provided on a plastic foil that has been shown to defeat many of the commercial fingerprint readers specifically in use by the German passport offices.

Read more about this on The Register's article

Biometrics are a good and useful identification mechanism, but there is a very real danger in overreliance on the specificity of a biometric item. How about those Mercedes cars that require the owner's fingerprint before they start?

Police in Malaysia are hunting for members of a violent gang who chopped off a car owner's finger to get round the vehicle's hi-tech security system. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4396831.stm