Beating Fingerprint Scanners Is Child’s Play

Biometrics technology used in fingerprint scanners protecting devices such as PCs can be fooled by humble Play-Doh.

www.engadget.com reports that USA’s Clarkson University’s Electrical and Computer Engineering team found most scanning systems can be fooled 90 percent of the time by taking a mould of a finger, filling it with Play-Doh, and using the fake digit to gain access.

No need to revert to ‘cash-in-mattress technology’ just yet, however, the Clarkson team also designed an algorithm that detects the spread of perspiration from a live person’s finger that renders the Play-Doh method only 10 percent effective. Only live fingers sweat so it’s effective in defeating the more notorious concept in fingerprint recognition security circumvention – that of finger removal.