Biometric spoofing: New technology, new crime
Biometric security systems are becoming more popular as a high-tech way to protect financial and other personal information – through fingerprinting, iris scans and facial recognition – so you can bet that thieves and fraudsters are working hard to find ways of cracking them.
According to Bori Toth, who is biometric research and advisory lead at Deloitte & Touche, biometric spoofing is a growing concern.
The fact is, we leave our fingerprints all over the place. Our eyes and faces are not hidden. Voices can be recorded.
"Currently it’s only researchers that are doing spoofing and copying.
It’s not a mainstream activity – but it will be. It’s just human
nature; if it can be done it will be done if you can achieve some
benefit from it." she told Silicon.com in a recent interview.
Research has shown that current fingerprint systems can be fooled with fake fingers.
Of course, biometric systems are continually being made stronger – for
example, ensuring that a finger has a pulse (gelatine fingers tend not
to) – but this is another tech battle, each side trying to gain the upper hand:
one to protect systems, the other for crime.
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