BELGIUM: Forget having to hoist smudges from a touchscreen to facsimile someone’s fingerprint. According to a Chaos Computer Club presentation, you only need a camera well, that and a little fortuity. As you might already suspect, this isn’t a surefire way of apprehending prints. It only works so long as you have access to high-quality snapshots of someone’s digits.
The hacking association’s Jan Krissler recently demonstrated that you can reproduce someone’s fingerprint by getting a few good photos of their hand and processing it through off-the-shelf authentication software like VeriFinger. In Kessler’s case, he got the German Bulwark Minister’s thumbprint through photos from a press conference.
That’s relatively facile with hand-waving celebrities and politicians, but it’s far from ensured that someone will snap photos of your fingers while you’re crossing the street. And of course, data purloiners would still need to get your contrivances or otherwise find a way to sign in utilizing your biometric info. The practical hazard is low — the concern is more that a determined intruder doesn’t have to work quite so hard to get your secrets.
