On Mon, 11 Dec 2000 15:28:23 +0000 Ben Laurie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> "R. A. Hettinga" wrote:
> > One of the main forms of security to combat such criminals will be
> > biometrics: voice recognition and the scanning of fingerprints, irises and
> > face shapes to secure property. Siemens is expected to launch a fingerprint
> > phone within months.
> >
> > In South Africa, where fingerprint security has been introduced at some
> > experimental prisons, inmates recently tried to cut off the hands of their
> > guards to enter protected gates.
>
> What did I tell ya?
>
> >
> > Chris Charrington, a biometrics analyst at Frost & Sullivan, a market
> > consultancy, said new technology would mean dead fingers would no longer be
> > able to activate the technology.
>
> Yeah, right. I urge (again) everyone to boycott all biometrics if they
> value their extremities.
It's worth pointing out that there are biometrical experts who claim that
fingerprinting is insecure for the following reasons:
1. people leave their fingerprints all over the place, and
2. a skilled person with the right equipment (for example a dental technician
who makes fake teath) can make a fake copy of such fingerprint that will be
accepted with all current devices
According to these experts, any method for detecting gloves, dead fingers
etc. cannot be made very reliable because the variation of the physical
properties whose measurement these systems rely on is very large. Increasing
the reliability would also increase the false rejection ratio, making the
systems unusable.
There's a paper on this in CARDIS '2000 of last September.
Jaap-Henk
--
Jaap-Henk Hoepman | Come sail your ships around me
Dept. of Computer Science | And burn these bridges down
University of Twente | Nick Cave - "Ship Song"
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