Weekly NDM

Hacker fakes German minister's fingerprints using photos of her hands

This article is about how a hacker replicates the German minister's fingerprints using photos. This shows that technology is advancing so much so that by using a few photos of a persons hand you are able to take their identity in essence.

• That’s no longer an abstract fear: a speaker at the Chaos Communication Congress, an annual meeting of hackers in Germany, demonstrated his method for faking fingerprints using only a few high-definition photographs of his target, German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen.
• Starbug is no stranger to taking on biometric security. In a high profile stunt in 2013, he spoofed Apple’s TouchID sensors within 24 hours of the release of the iPhone 5S.
• And Starbug agrees, telling Zeit in 2013 that “I consider my password safer than my fingerprint… My password is in my head, and if I’m careful when typing, I remain the only one who knows it.”

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/30/hacker-fakes-german-ministers-fingerprints-using-photos-of-her-hands