To protest the use of biometric data, a hacker club in Germany called the Chaos Computer Club has published the fingerprint of German Home Secretary Wolfgang Schäuble.
There's more:
http://www.cebit.de/newsanzeige_e.html?multi=1&back=/homepage_e&news=33069&back=%2Fhomepage_e - Thanks tim!The hackers go even further than reproducing Schäuble's fingerprint; the magazine also includes a thin film that can be taped over your finger to deceive fingerprint readers with Schäuble's fingerprint. "We recommend that you use the film whenever you're fingerprint is taken, such as when you enter the US, stop over at Heathrow , or even when you touch bottles at your local super market -- just to be on the safe side," Engling says.
The CCC says that the fingerprint it published is genuine. It says it got the fingerprint from a sympathizer who took it from a glass the Home Secretary had been drinking from during a podium discussion. The hackers then saved the fingerprint and created the dummy fingerprints from it in a meticulous process that took all night. A total of 4000 copies of the magazine were printed, more than 2000 of which are currently being sent to members of the CCC.
Í know of a dentist who thought it would be "high tech" to sign people in at her office via a thumbprint scanner. Now they have absoluutely no real NEED for such security (what's wrong with just telling the receptionist you have arrived?), but now they have a thumbprint database on all the patients. I don't think they intend anything sinister themselves, but ne'er-do-wells could certainly know the dentist keeps such info and steal it for some purpose (breaking into a biometric-controlled military area, falsifying identity, &c.).
I like the CCC. They really show us that there no such thing as digital security.
Good point. I'd love to follow the case.