Ready or Not, Biometrics Finally in Stores

cancer4xmas writes: "It's very exciting to see USA Today's Technology front page saying, "Will that be cash, fingerprint or cellphone?" They're running a story on emerging biometric devices being the most fundamental change in personal finance since 1950, when the credit card was introduced. The concept is now being tested in some stores. Check out the full story." Now couple that tidbit with this morsel from wherley: "In a letter [scroll down a bit] to Bruce Schneier's Cryptogram newsletter, Ton van der Putte tells of a recent invitation from the BBC to comment on the addition of fingerprint biometrics to the British ID card. Using a digital camera and UV lamp he was able to make dummy fingerprints that fooled the readers - and in less time and less cost than similar experiments 10 years ago. He says: '...now the average do-it-yourselfer is able to achieve perfect results and requires only limited means and skills.'"

Cash, credit card or gelatine

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Since that bloke showed how to use gelatine to fool a fingerprint machine, how long before jello becomes a controlled substance?

Other ways to get past this system

[tearmeapart]

I've thought about this for awhile, and I am thinking:
Why don't people just cut off their fingers and trade them as a commodity? Each finger is access to a different system...

For instance, if I work for a bank, but I want to get a vacation cheap, I just trade a finger with my buddy who works for some airline. He does what he wants with my bank, and I get the plane tickets I need to get away from this country.

The only problem is, if I want 10 things at once, how do I access the system without any fingers?
Maybe they should sell voice-recognition software with it.

Oh geesh

[downix]

Talk about giving someone the finger, geesh.

Let me guess...

[Racine]

The top rated comment in this thread will be "Score:5, Funny." How predictable...

Re:Ouch

[Popadopolis]

I think that some store owners might notice if you came in and payed with a severed thumb. If not store owners, maybe bank people? Police? Security cameras? My guess is that paying (or withdrawing money) with a severed thumb might, might be considered suspicious behavior.

LOL

[FunWithHeadlines]

" How long before theives chop off people's fingers and buy stuff with it?"

Well, quite a long while I would think. I would imagine that the teenage checkout person at the supermarket would scream bloody murder at the sight of you using a severed finger, getting blood all over the biometric scanner. I can see it now:

"Paper or plast-- AAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Not exactly the most effective scam to try.

Why I feel safer each day.

[rice_burners_suck]

I think they should tie biometrics into everything you have... your bank accounts, credit cards, the keys to your car and house... everything. And to make it consumer-ready, they should take everybody's biometrics and put them on public-access databases that anybody can access. Furthermore, anybody can go online to the database website, fill in a few blanks, push a single button, and get mailed an ID card with all the biometric information encoded on it, so that instead of putting a finger on a reader to withdraw cash from a bank account, all they have to do is insert a card that has the same information on it. There would be no safeguards to make sure that only the person named on the card can receive a copy of it. In fact, the system and all the laws around it would be deliberately designed so that anybody can get anybody's card.

Microsoft would run this service, and advertise it as 100% secure. I feel safer every day.

Oh yeah, and it would be an anti-felony, punishable by a $1000 reward, to use somebody else's biometrics to obtain money, goods, or services. (If that makes you feel unsafe, remember that listening to a CD that you didn't buy, such as if a friend plays a CD and you happen to be in the vicinity, will constitute piracy punishable by death. Feel better? Good.)

Re:Ouch

[pvt_medic]

please you give them too much credit

Re:Please, don't stop!

[Fibonacci Ceres]

You can't tell me that a "secure" system will prevent this, because I can't tell a secure system by looking at one. The promise of Open Source is no guarantee, either. Even if it had a picture of a penguin on the outside, a spiffy GNU-y logo, and OSF and SourceForge brand stickers on it, how do I know it's really "IdentifyMe_2.0" and not some hacked-up demo being run by Vinnie the Chiseler?/

Understood, but if the capture pad whined at you in Richard Stallman's voice then you'd no doubt feel much more comfortable.