Chaos Computer Club is a hackers’ network that is 31 years old and claims to be Europe’s largest association of hackers. A member of this club recently claimed to have created a thumbprint of the German politician by making use of a commercial software along with images that were taken at a news conference.
Jan Krissler, the hacker, said that he was able to replicate the fingerprint of the Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen through the pictures that were taken with a standard photo camera. Krissler didn’t have any physical print from Ms. Von der Leyen. According to experts, fingerprint biometrics are not considered secure anyway. Mr. Krissler, also known as Starbug, told about this feat while speaking to the convention of CCC.
He told the members that he used a close-up picture of Ms. Ursula’s thumb and other pictures that were taken during a press event that the minister spoke at in October. Mr. Krissler further said that ‘politicians will presumably wear gloves when talking in public’ once they find out what can be done by simply obtaining pictures.
Fingerprint identification has been sported by Apple and Samsung. It is also used for the identification of voters during elections. Experts say that it is not a secure method for verification. Cybersecurity expert Professor Alan Woodward from Surrey University said, “Biometrics that rely on static information like face recognition or fingerprints – it’s not trivial to forge them but most people have accepted that they are not a great form of security because they can be faked. People are starting to look for things where the biometric is alive – vein recognition in fingers, gait [body motion] analysis – they are also biometrics but they are chosen because the person has to be in possession of them and exhibiting them in real life.”
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