There is an assumption among users that biometric security is foolproof and impossible to hack, but if there is one thing we must learn from the past few decades it is that hackers are always two steps ahead.
The last to make that statement good is the Chaos Computer Club, an association of hackers that ensures that it is capable of reproducing fingerprints from photographs. To prove they copied the fingerprint of the German defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, and they did it without having access to any object that they had touched.
Fingerprints are not the perfect security
Normally when we think about copying a fingerprint we imagine getting it from a glass or a touch screen, but this method is capable of reproduce the footprint from photos. In particular, they took as a basis a close-up photograph of the minister, and together with other images taken at different angles, the VeriFinger program was able to reconstruct the footprint.
If this method becomes popular, it is very possible that we will soon see the Political leaders will wear gloves in all their public appearances, hackers claim. In any case, normally obtaining the fingerprint is only part of the challenge; The other part is getting to use it on a smartphone, security camera, or compartment that are usually protected by real people and not by automated systems.
