Finger Prints Can be Stolen Just by Using a Camera

A plain, simple photo camera can steal your finger prints! Researchers said that there are scams that can digital replicate finger prints using a high quality photo of your digits.

Biometrics researcher, Jan Krisller demonstrated during the Chaos Communication Congress held in Hamburg, Germany, this weekend, how he reproduced the fingerprints of Germany’s Federal Minister of Defense, Ursula von der Leyen.
Krisller photographed the minister during a public speech, using a standard photo camera. He managed to get high resolutions snaps of her fingers while she was gesticulating during her speech. After that, he made a copy of her finger prints, which are just as good as the originals.

“After this talk, politicians will presumably wear gloves when talking in public,” said Krissler boastfull in a statement.

The prints might be used to gain access to any data protected by, in this case, the minister’s biometric data. But even if replicating the finger prints of an official, in order to break in, that person would need access to their smartphone or computer. This just adds up a little bit more work for someone trying to gain access to a person’s private information using fake fingerprints.

Krissler said that the persons who will be using finger prints scam will no longer have to steal objects touched by the respective person, in order to get his/hers finger print. Maybe if finger prints will be used in the future for opening doors, then it might become a serious matter.

This is not the first time the team from Chaos Computer Club played with finger prints. After the launch of the iPhone 5S, last year, the team succeeded unlocking the device using fake fingerprints. The Chaos Computer, created a fake latex finger and used a finger print left on a glass or smartphone screen. They wanted to prove that finger prints biometrics is not a safe access control method for devices.
This year, Germany’s Security Research Lab, demonstrated how technical flaws in the finger print authentication in Samsung Galaxy S5 can expose to thieves and hackers user’s data, devices and even back accounts.
Nowadays most devices, especially devices made by Apple, come with the fingerprint readers. On Android phones, finger print authentication isn’t standard, but some devices have it installed.
Image Source: BGR

Bio
Latest Posts

Christina Langfold

Remember that weird girl in school who never quite managed to fit in? Who was always silent and strange? That was me during my entire teenage life. A few years after finishing college (with a degree in arts) I decided that the best way to become more sociable, while also feeling safe, is to test my people skills online.