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Letters to PC World

Readers weigh in on identity theft, home networking equipment, and Windows fixes.

  

Letter of the Month: Biometrics Not Ready for Prime Time

I was intrigued by Andrew Brandt's online article on biometrics, which reported on how easily many biometric security systems can be fooled ["Biometric Security Barely Skin-Deep"]. As an inventor of a biometric ID system myself, I have also discovered vulnerabilities in these systems. In fact, one doesn't need to melt down gummy bears (as the story suggests) to "lift" a fingerprint. Wal-Mart has a silicon gel kit for $15--used to record baby footprints and fingerprints--that can do the same thing.

Forgeries are not the only problem. As a Department of Defense contractor, I was recently issued a Common Access Card as part of a DOD-wide program that will eventually cost taxpayers untold billions of dollars. Its fingerprint identification system not only failed to recognize my right index finger after several registration attempts, it also recognized three other people as being me after it did work!

Michael Willmore, Lexington Park, Maryland

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