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03/30/2008: "Biometric data easily stolen, forged"

A hacker club has published what it says is the fingerprint of Wolfgang Schauble, Germany's interior minister and a staunch supporter of the collection of citizens' unique physical characteristics as a means of preventing terrorism.

In the most recent issue of Die Datenschleuder, the Chaos Computer Club printed the image on a plastic foil that leaves fingerprints when it is pressed against biometric readers.

No-one from the Germany-based group has been able to test the foil to see if it can fool a computer into believing it came from Schauble. But the technique has been shown to work with a variety of other people's prints on almost two-dozen readers, according to a colleague of the hacker who pulled off the demonstration.

[ Fingerprints, like other data, can be stolen and forged. Yet the state wants to rely on them increasingly. Castles made of sand... ]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/30/german_interior_minister_fingerprint_appropriated/