Biometric Scanners - Real Thread

[Clay]

The real beauty of this thread is that a couple of months after I submitted it, everything here was verified on an episode of Myth Busters. Had to be my favorite episode to date, just because of that.

[Nilus]

Just to add to your list of realistic Biometric readers. Here is one I saw recently at a new server farm at work

Its a hand print scanner, but instead of scanning your hand print it actually measures the unique size and shape of your hand. I have thought hand prints were a better way to secure then finger prints. Finger prints show up everywhere but its harder to get a full clean hand print of someone.

The other cool feature of the sites mantrap was that it weighted you when you checked in and then weighted you again when you left. A fun adventure hang up for a thief trying to steal something could be them breaking in easily with fake credentials but havng the alarm go off when they are leaving because there weight more due to the thing they are stealing.

[Clay]

That's beautiful information. Full hand prints are indeed much more rare. Again, it's subject to the axe in a dark alley attack, but it's a huge step up over fingerprints. The weight thing is good too, because it stops the infamous Five Finger Discount Attack (http://seclists.org/bugtraq/2000/Nov/0108.html).

There is still a path around this, of course. Those machines got into the server room somehow, and there has to be arrangements to bring new hardware in and out. So somebody could compromise that. Of course such a compromise is likely to be a bit attention-getting, so they would need to be prepared to move quickly, and with overwhelming force.