Posted on 03/02/2003 6:52:16 PM PST by chance33_98
What can I do to help this dream come true?
Gummi bears defeat fingerprint sensors
By John Leyden
Posted: 16/05/2002 at 12:29 GMTA Japanese cryptographer has demonstrated how fingerprint recognition devices can be fooled using a combination of low cunning, cheap kitchen supplies and a digital camera.
First Tsutomu Matsumoto used gelatine (as found in Gummi Bears and other sweets) and a plastic mould to create a fake finger, which he found fooled fingerprint detectors four times out of five.
Flushed with his success, he took latent fingerprints from a glass, which he enhanced with a cyanoacrylate adhesive (super-glue fumes) and photographed with a digital camera. Using PhotoShop, he improved the contrast of the image and printed the fingerprint onto a transparency sheet.
Here comes the clever bit.
Matsumoto took a photo-sensitive printed-circuit board (which can be found in many electronic hobby shops) and used the fingerprint transparency to etch the fingerprint into the copper.
From this he made a gelatine finger using the print on the PCB, using the same process as before. Again this fooled fingerprint detectors about 80 per cent of the time.
Fingerprint biometric devices, which attempt to identify people on the basis of their fingerprint, are touted as highly secure and almost impossible to fool but Matsumoto's work calls this comforting notion into question. The equipment he used is neither particularly hi-tech, nor expensive and if Matsumoto can pull off the trick what would corporate espionage boffins be capable of?
Matsumoto tried these attacks against eleven commercially available fingerprint biometric systems, and was able to reliably fool all of them.
Noted cryptographer Bruce Schneier, the founder and CTO of Counterpane Internet Security, described Matsumoto's work as more than impressive.
"The results are enough to scrap the systems completely, and to send the various fingerprint biometric companies packing," said Schneier in yesterday's edition of his Crypto-Gram newsletter, which first publicised the issue.
I'm still digging around on the NCDMV site, with no luck yet.
The only (vague) mention I've seen yet on the site to the Viisage technology is on this page:
North Carolinas New Driver License and Identification Card
"A process called digital imaging is used to obtain and store customer portraits and signatures.
Along with digital-imaging, the new driver license is equipped with a bar code system that houses each customers personal data and can only be accessed by NCDMV and law enforcement agencies."
Yes, billbears, this fairly REEKS of Liddy.
Gag me with a third brake light!
Good night.
CD
Yes it appears so. Although NC is not listed on the FR recognition customer list, we are on the ID list and from that page it says:
Viisage's contract with the state of North Carolina started in April 1996 and continues through April 2001 at an approximate value of $ 10.6 million. As prime contractor, Viisage Technology has complete responsibility for the design, integration, installation, testing, maintenance, and performance of the state of North Carolina's over-the-counter Digitized Driver License and Image Database Systems.
Tasks:
Overall systems requirements analysis
Hardware architecture · Customized workstation OS/2 applications
Data collection and storage structured for TCP/IP communications network
Installation of 142 workstations for over-the-counter issuance of approximately two million driver licenses/ID cards annually
Installation of two Division of Motor Vehicle workstations for retrieval of licenses and "valid without photo license" documents
Installation of a Development Workstation for in-house training and testing
Installation of a Central Image Server for online storage and retrieval of all signatures and images via state network
Supply, distribution, and maintenance of consumable items for two million cards per year for five years.
Technologies, Innovations, and Accomplishments:
Implementing DDL/ID workstation in an IBM OS/2 operating system environment
Implementing both RAID magnetic [primary] and DLT tape [secondary] storage for data redundancy
Developing a secure inventory control system for distribution of sensitive materials
Developing telephone inquiry/FAX transmission capability from Central Image Server
Combining new digital image capture system with existing demographic database
Designing maintenance scheme to support 7 days/week, 24 hours/day customer service.
I don't know about you, but combining a digital image capture system with an existing demographic database sounds a whole lot like my pic is floating around some server in NC
Yes, billbears, this fairly REEKS of Liddy.
Shhhh, don't tell Howlin!! LOL. First Giddy kept the speed limit lowered to 55(against the wishes of the Reagan administration), then required seatbelts, then airbags, now a picture of every citizen. Howlin, sorry but this is somebody mucking around with my driving freedom and I don't like it one bit
Further, you can do this at home for cheap.
Only criminals will bother of course.. but, then again they are the ones the system is designed to catch.
So is McCain.
And as for Paul? Beauty is only skin deep, but stupidity goes straight to the bone.
Please cite the section of the Constituttion that enumerates a power to the fed to issue a national ID.
It is as easy to parse this statement semantically, just as it is easy to semantically parse the statement "I did not have sex with that woman, Monica Lewinksy".
It is also quite easy to recognize that each statement is a bald-faced lie.
The Chancellor will be with you as soon as his attendant is finished polishing his Penumbral Emanation Spectacles[tm]. He'll need them, as the item you've requested is one of those clauses that somehow evades the grosser vision of ordinary mortals.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.