December 22, 2006

Biometric Readers are NOT As Secure As You Think

I've been using a biometric reader in my relatively new Lenovo 3000 N100 notebook. Most times it works fine, but if my hands are real cold or fingers are dirty it doesn't read well on the first few tries. (I can always input my password via the keyboard).

For companies relying on biometric readers for VERY secure data you need to research and consider if it is as secure as you think it is.

The Wall Street Journal reports that some researchers have been able to use cadavers, gelatin or Play-Doh (finger molds) to fool the finger print reader.

Biometric systems that take a picture of the finger print and match it against a database are less secure than ones that use thermal or ultrasonic imaging. But researchers say that all are susceptible.

The International Biometric Group is a good source for information on this. Their report on Liveness Detection in Biometric Systems should be quite interesting.

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