Straight Out of the Movies: Hacking via Fingerprints

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Straight Out of the Movies: Hacking via Fingerprints -

spy movies that feature uber smart hackers are a dime a dozen, and why not? Audiences love the suspense, technology made-up, funny jargon, and collecting pulse music. However, it is not so fun when these hacks you see on the silver screen make their way in real life and have the potential to affect the safety of your data.

A recent demonstration at the conference of a pirate in Germany is a case in point. A hacker has shown his driving skills fingerprints of the German defense minister. How did he remove it, and what are the implications of the fingerprint and other biometric piracy for people every day?

A Masterful Hack

One of the reasons people like fingerprint security is that even although they know that it is possible for someone to steal fingerprints, the chances of that happening are slim because it takes close to a target and skills CSI-like to remove it, right? Not necessarily.

Jan Krissler, known in the circles of Starbug pirates stole the fingerprint of German Minister of Defense using high-resolution photographs. CNN explains how Starbug and his group, Computer Chaos, snatched the hack "Starbug printed fingerprint from photos on tracing paper, copied on a plastic plate covered in graphite and made a dummy printing wood plastic coating glue. "The resulting dummy printing could fool Apple TouchID.

As you can see, steal fingerprints from afar is not a process that requires unlimited resources. However, tearing biometrics is not something that most cyber villains may try because the process takes patience and finesse

However, the cascade of Starbug can still scratching your head and wondering if your fingerprints -. Or pattern of your iris or even your DNA - are safe from prying eyes

problems with biometric security

Everyone signed up for an account on a site that says your password should be at. least eight letters, numbers, special characters, and perhaps even the name of your great-grandfather.

Thus enters the call of biometric security. Your fingers and your eyes are always with you, which means that there is nothing for you to remember and nothing for you to forget. On the flip side, however, you can change a password if it falls into the wrong hands. You can not exchange your fingers for new.

This is just one of the pitfalls of biometric security. Facial recognition technology is advancing to the point where it may be able to find you in a crowd. If governments and companies are starting to equip their security cameras with such advanced technology, privacy could almost become a thing of the past.

It becomes even more frightening. Once your biometric data goes into a computer and hitting cyberspace, it becomes a ripe target for hackers.

Some methods for analyzing biometric data are quite young, but future implications for the use of these data are significant. A lawyer quoted in Scientific American points out, "Once you have someone's DNA, you have all kinds of highly personal information. There is a lot of fear that people will start testing samples for a link between genes and the propensity to crime. "

Because the use of biometric data for security is in the early stages of its popularity, the future a lot of questions to be answered. But what about now? What this means that smart hackers can steal your fingerprints off?

The impact on data security

Maybe the browser on your phone to save your password for your banking site and your favorite shopping websites that your card information credit.

This is a convenient way to get quick access to your mobile device, but these things have easy access means that if your phone falls into the wrong hands, you are at risk for theft identity, even if you unlock your phone using your fingerprint.

Starbug and Computer Chaos spend much of their time trying to find ways to hack technology, and they are not likely to come after, then you really are at risk as you go about your day-to the day? Well, yes and no. A hacker does not need your actual fingerprint to gain access to a protected fingerprint device.

biometric security systems provide access based on, not the wavy lines on your finger pads, but on the computer interprets as wavy lines. Potentially, a hacker could send the digital version of your fingerprint to your device and access it remotely.

strong biometric systems have safeguards against such a hack, and it is unlikely that a common cybervillain would go to the effort required to access your camera unless it is certain that a great reward awaits.

a young problem with few solutions

After Starbug stole the fingerprint of the German defense minister, he joked that people will start to wear gloves in public. Unless you're in love with gloves as a fashion statement, they are not the way to go about safeguarding your sensitive information. The best thing to do is to continue to use standard safe practices to protect your data, for example by using a quality security program on your devices and choosing passwords that are difficult to crack.

However, it is wise to keep in mind the debate flowering behind biometric security. As technology becomes more common and more advanced, the government should implement laws to regulate the use of this technology by individuals, organizations, and the government itself.

The article mentioned Scientific American said, "This legislation should limit the amount and type of data that the government can store and where they can be stored. This should limit the collection of different types of biometric data in a single database. and it certainly should require that all biometric data stored in the safest way possible. "

You do not have to go running off to get your fingerprints erased like J did in "Men in Black", but you should always keep abreast of the latest trends in hacking so you can take appropriate measures to protect yourself.

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