[geeks] Interesting article on fingerprint biometric systems

[Dan Duncan]

On Tue, 11 May 2004, Sandwich Maker wrote:
> i was more concerned with how they obtain a code in the first place -
> guessing?  snooping?  interrogation?

Any of the above are possible, I guess, but interrogation is
where you would have the opportunity to give a duress code.
Snooping might work if you needed to record your code (BAD BAD BAD!)
and recorded your duress code with a mental note to add or subtract
to get the real code.

> what makes them fall for the
> duress code over the real one?

Why wouldn't they fall for the duress code?  I appears to be a
valid code, and would appear to work at first.  By the time
the unauthorized party realizes it wasn't the correct code,
presumably they are surrounded by MPs with guns.  At
$LOCAL_AIR_FORCE_BASE, the man trap entry has an armed response
time on the order of 15 seconds.  They'll try not to shoot
the hostage but no guarantees.  Ahhh, the wonders of DoD.

> " One thing I did learn about retinal scanners:  They make GREAT
> " pregnancy tests.
>
> boy is -that- loaded...  just imagine how employers could misuse that
> info.

Any more so than they might misuse more obvious signs of pregnancy?
It doesn't stay secret for very long.

-DanD

-- 
#  Dan Duncan (kd4igw)  dand at pcisys.net  http://pcisys.net/~dand
# "Mother Teresa stops short.  Mother Teresa justifies what she does because
# of myth. Janet did what she did because it was right."  -Jack Kevorkian,
# commenting on the death of his friend Janet Good.