IP: fake fingerprints

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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From: Richard Jay Solomon <richard () goodread com>
Date: Sun, 19 May 2002 11:00:42 -0400
To: farber () cis upenn edu (David Farber), eric () creative-technology net (Eric
Rosenthal), ticed () bellatlantic net (Tice F. DeYoung)
Subject: fake fingerprints

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1991000/1991517.stm


        Friday, 17 May, 2002, 11:15 GMT 12:15 UK
Doubt cast on fingerprint security
 
Fingerprints are surprisingly easy to fake

Fake fingers made out of common household ingredients can fool security
systems that use fingerprints to identify people.

If he could do this, then any semi-professional can almost certainly do
much, much more

Bruce Schneier, security expert The artificial fingers and prints were
created with gelatine by Japanese researchers who used the digits to trick
biometric systems into thinking they were seeing the real thing.

Not only was it possible to fool the security systems with casts of fingers,
the researchers found they could make convincing fakes using fingerprints
lifted from glass.

Experts say the experiments cast serious doubt on any claims that this type
of biometric system can be made fully secure.

'Impressive work'

The work was done by engineering professor Tsutomu Matsumoto and his
colleagues at the Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences at
the University of Yokohama.

 
Household ingredients can help fool fingerprint detectors

The first set of experiments used fake fingers formed when gelatine was
poured into a mould created by pushing a finger into a malleable plastic
more often used by model makers.

The fingers created this way fooled the fingerprint readers 80% of the time.

Making the fingers took only a few minutes and used raw materials that cost
less than £10. The researchers also developed a way to create fake fingers
using prints left on glass.

First, the latent print was hardened using glue that sticks to the ridges of
bodily detritus, such as sweat and skin cells, left behind when a finger
touches a hardened surface.

'Impressive' work

This improved print was photographed using a digital camera and was then
enhanced using Adobe Photoshop software to emphasise the difference between
its ridges and gaps.

The image was transferred to a photosensitive sheet, etched into copper to
turn it from a flat image into a three-dimensional print, and then used to
create another mould.

Again the fake fingers fooled the biometric readers 80% of the time.

Security expert Bruce Schneier wrote of Dr Matsumoto's work: "Impressive is
an understatement."

He said the fact the systems were fooled using easily available ingredients
should be enough to end the use of fingerprint-based security systems.

"If he could do this, then any semi-professional can almost certainly do
much, much more," wrote Mr Schneier.
Dr Matsumoto and his colleagues first presented their work in January at the
Electronic Imaging 2002 conference organised by the International Society
for Optical Engineering.



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