[Clips] Engineer Outwits Fingerprint Recognition Devices with Play-Doh

Sat Dec 10 11:10:29 EST 2005

Same story, different malleable substance...

Cheers,
RAH
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 From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
 Subject: [Clips] Engineer Outwits Fingerprint Recognition Devices with
 	Play-Doh
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 <http://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php/20051209175034721>

  Web LinuxElectrons

 Engineer Outwits Fingerprint Recognition Devices with Play-Doh

  Friday, December 09 2005 @ 05:50 PM CST
  Contributed by: ByteEnable
 Potsdam, New York - Eyeballs, a severed hand, or fingers carried in ziplock
 bags. Back alley eye replacement surgery. These are scenarios used in
 recent blockbuster movies like Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report" and
 "Tomorrow Never Dies" to illustrate how unsavory characters in high-tech
 worlds beat sophisticated security and identification systems.

 Sound fantastic? Maybe not. Biometrics is the science of using biological
 properties, such as fingerprints, an iris scan, or voice recognition, to
 identify individuals. And in a world of growing terrorism concerns and
 increasing security measures, the field of biometrics is rapidly expanding.

  "Biometric systems automatically measure the unique physiological or
 behavioral 'signature' of an individual, from which a decision can be made
 to either authenticate or determine that individual's identity," explained
 Stephanie C. Schuckers, an associate professor of electrical and computer
 engineering at Clarkson University. "Today, biometric systems are popping
 up everywhere - in places like hospitals, banks, even college residence
 halls - to authorize or deny access to medical files, financial accounts,
 or restricted or private areas."

  "And as with any identification or security system," Schuckers adds,
 "biometric devices are prone to 'spoofing' or attacks designed to defeat
 them."

  Spoofing is the process by which individuals overcome a system through an
 introduction of a fake sample. "Digits from cadavers and fake fingers
 molded from plastic, or even something as simple as Play-Doh or gelatin,
 can potentially be misread as authentic," she explains. "My research
 addresses these deficiencies and investigates ways to design effective
 safeguards and vulnerability countermeasures. The goal is to make the
 authentication process as accurate and reliable as possible."

  Schuckers' biometric research is funded by the National Science Foundation
 (NSF), the Office of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. She
 is currently assessing spoofing vulnerability in fingerprint scanners and
 designing methods to correct for these as part of a $3.1 million
 interdisciplinary research project funded through the NSF. The project,
 "ITR: Biometrics: Performance, Security and Societal Impact," investigates
 the technical, legal and privacy issues raised from broader applications of
 biometric system technology in airport security, computer access, or
 immigration. It is a joint initiative among researchers from Clarkson, West
 Virginia University, Michigan State University, St. Lawrence University,
 and the University of Pittsburgh.

  Fingerprint scanning devices often use basic technology, such as an
 optical camera that take pictures of fingerprints which are then "read" by
 a computer. In order to assess how vulnerable the scanners are to spoofing,
 Schuckers and her research team made casts from live fingers using dental
 materials and used Play-Doh to create molds. They also assembled a
 collection of cadaver fingers.

 Clarkson University Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer
 Engineering Stephanie C. Schuckers, with imitation fingers. Simple casts
 made from a mold and material such as Play-doh, clay or gelatin can be used
 to fool most fingerprint recognition devices. Schuckers, an expert in
 biometrics, the science of using biological properties, such as
 fingerprints or voice recognition, to identify individuals, is a partner in
 a $3.1 million interdisciplinary biometrics research project funded by the
 National Science Foundation with support from the Department of Homeland
 Security.
  In the laboratory, the researchers then systematically tested more than 60
 of the faked samples. The results were a 90 percent false verification rate.

  "The machines could not distinguish between a live sample and a fake one,"
 Schuckers explained. "Since liveness detection is based on the recognition
 of physiological activities as signs of life, we hypothesized that
 fingerprint images from live fingers would show a specific changing
 moisture pattern due to perspiration but cadaver and spoof fingerprint
 images would not."

  In live fingers, perspiration starts around the pore, and spreads along
 the ridges, creating a distinct signature of the process. Schuckers and her
 research team designed a computer algorithm that would detect this pattern
 when reading a fingerprint image. With the new detection system integrated
 into the device, less than 10 percent of the spoofed samples were able to
 fool the machine.

  Addressing potential problems before they can occur is one of the goals of
 Schuckers' biometrics research. "As security systems based on biometrics
 continue to develop, it is important that people are reassured that their
 privacy is protected," she said. "How confident will someone feel giving
 his/her fingerprint over a public communication channel, such as the
 Internet? The technology needs to be solid and reliable and offer adequate
 privacy protection before biometric security systems will be accepted by
 the public."

  Schuckers is also a member of the Center for Identification Technology, a
 cooperative research center headquartered at West Virginia University that
 brings together the NSF, industry and government agencies, and university
 researchers. She is director of the Biomedical Signal Analysis Laboratory
 at Clarkson. Schuckers joined the faculty of Clarkson in 2002. She received
 her doctoral degree in electrical engineering from the University of
 Michigan in 1997.

 --
 -----------------
 R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
 The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
 "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
 [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
 experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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