Posted on 07/15/2015 1:55:57 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
The Office of Personnel Management announced last week that the personal data for 21.5 million people had been stolen. But for national security professionals and cybersecurity experts, the more troubling issue is the theft of 1.1 million fingerprints.
Much of their concern rests with the permanent nature of fingerprints and the uncertainty about just how the hackers intend to use them. Unlike a Social Security number, address, or password, fingerprints cannot be changed—once they are hacked, they're hacked for good. And government officials have less understanding about what adversaries could do or want to do with fingerprints, a knowledge gap that undergirds just how frightening many view the mass lifting of them from OPM.
"It's probably the biggest counterintelligence threat in my lifetime," said Jim Penrose, former chief of the Operational Discovery Center at the National Security Agency and now an executive vice president at the cybersecurity company Darktrace. "There's no situation we've had like this before, the compromise of our fingerprints. And it doesn't have any easy remedy or fix in the world of intelligence."
Though the idea of hacked fingerprints conjures up troubling scenarios gleaned from Hollywood's panoply of espionage capers, not much is currently known about those that OPM said were swiped in the data breach, which began last year and has been privately linked by officials to China. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...
Could 3-D printing create a latex like finger tip one could wear to bypass finger print scanners or even frame a person for a crime?
Well... I suppose merely 1.1 million prints means a good chance mine weren’t in the hack.
One can hope.
oops .... NOW you’ve done it ....
artificially grow OUR workforce, will'ya' ...
hah hah hah
I don't know. In one of the Jason Bourne movies the CIA attempts to frame Bourne by putting his fingerprints, reproduced on some sort of transparent plastic strips, around a crime scene.
The 3D printing idea is interesting.
I’M Sparticus !
No ... I’M Sparticus !
No ... I’M Sparticus !
Military people too. Not just civil servants.
I had a job recently working for a Navy subcontractor. Since I had no contact with classified information I tried to get out of yet another clearance. I was told they were doing a belt and suspenders approach and I had to go through the entire all day pouring out of the soul complete with yet another fingerprinting. I pointed out that I was already in the FBI database, DISCO, NSA and they new universal ID system (can’t recall the name.) But, no, they don’t look in those databases I had to give them yet another set.
I wonder when the government will tell those who had their data breeched. I also believe the data breech was worse than originally stated and 21 million workers had their data stolen. That’s what I heard.
I need to clarify, I heard 21 million had their fingerprint data stolen.
That’s very interesting.
There’s a new game in town, really. I went to get my DL renewed and two things I noticed (above the very stringent requirements to prove who you are by BC or passport). One was the no longer digitally scanned your finger prints and secondly, when your picture is taken, you have to remove your glasses.
I had a rapport with the guy doing the paperwork (a veteran like me who also had a veteran’s DL) and I asked about hat. He said that the camera also captured the eyes’ retinal patterns and that was the new standard. This is Georgia’s new federal ID compliance program.
One good thing is that it is next to impossible for an illegal to get a DL that will allow him/her to register vote. Even for those persons who are not citizens, there are identity and lawful presence proof requirements.
The documentation required is pretty extensive in my opinion and they look at all of it closely. Everything has to be original documents or certified copies. It is a big imposition on citizens, but if this keeps one illegal from getting a DL and impeding them from voting I’m all for it.
And plenty of civilian contractors. Think Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop-Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed-Martin, etc.
Knarf, you think that's something to laugh about?
Whenever I hear about this I wonder ... what was a database like that online for and accessible to the general network?
Also things are headed towards ‘biometric’ logins/identification. You are assumed to be “authentic” (and not anonymous online) by verifying your fingerprint.
Except there will be millions of stolen identities.
And then there is the whole “run fingerprints by to match un-accused people with unsolved crimes” scenario. In Texas, they require fingerprints from each hand to get a driver’s license and have since the 1990s.
“...In Texas, they require fingerprints from each hand to get a driver’s license and have since the 1990s.”
Is this for first time licenses, I.e. for someone who never had one or didn’t have one from another state?
When I came to Texas from California all I needed was documentation and hand in my California driver license.
No fingerprints from both hands.
I arrived after the 90s.
Don’t know when it started, know they took the index finger from each hand and again every time I’ve gotten a new photo (updated photo or replacement for a stolen wallet).
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