Fooling Fingerprint Readers Easier than Ever

In a letter to Crypto-Gram, Ton van der Putte has reported that duplicating fingerprints now is even easier than ten years ago, when he first experimented with the techniques. He concludes that the combination of an identity card and a biometric fingerprint sensor is less secure than using an identity card alone, because the biometric provides a false sense of security. The developers and users of the Hong Kong SmartID card would do well to take note.