What's Fingerprint Data Worth In Future Cyber Attacks?

You know, this is a really good question. It's odd that no one has really given it much thought until now.

How much value will fingerprint data have in future cyberattacks? That question looms large as the Office of Personnel Management said Wednesday that about 5.6 million fingerprints were stolen in its summer data breach, up from the 1.1 million estimate previously given.

Don't see that fingerprints are generally valuable, like an SSN; you need to have a physical device you want access to, and then have the compromised set of prints.

That being said, for specialty cases such as high net worth individuals, or espionage/national security issues, it could potentially be very valuable. It will be "interesting" to see how these compromises occur in the future.

To take this to the extreme, it is possible to replicate DNA in the lab.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_gene_synthesis

When we see movies like The Borne Identity or James Bond or other spy type movies, it's a little unsettling to me that if the powers that be wished it, they could frame someone and provide air tight evidence against that person that could potentially put them away forever.

Imagine taking someones finger print data, replicating it onto any surface at the scene of a crime along with that person's synthetic DNA and framing them. /shudder

SixFootDuo said:

Imagine taking someones finger print data, replicating it onto any surface at the scene of a crime along with that person's synthetic DNA and framing them. /shudder

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why would anyone do that?

Open and shut case Johnson! I saw this once before when I was a rookie. Apparently this n**** broke in and hung pictures of his family everywhere. Well... lets sprinkle some crack on him and get out' a here."

TwistedAegis said:

Don't see that fingerprints are generally valuable, like an SSN; you need to have a physical device you want access to, and then have the compromised set of prints.

That being said, for specialty cases such as high net worth individuals, or espionage/national security issues, it could potentially be very valuable. It will be "interesting" to see how these compromises occur in the future.

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Your thinking just like the author and whoever he is quoting is thinking. And your wrong.

Your only seeing it from one direction, reverse your point of view. The data has been compromised, this means the integrity of the data is at risk. As an example, my fingerprint data on record with OPM might be some one else's fingerprint data and not my own. Truthfully, I rarely have to submit new data, but if I ever do, there would be a mismatch and while I will no longer be me, someone else could become me all that much easier because my fingerprint data says so.

The great question becomes, was the data only stollen, or was some of it replaced, and if so, with whose?

Classified Government systems are physically seperated from unclassified systems and the internet. In order to really gain access to them hacking won't work, you have to gain physical access to the network first. Take someone's identity and you are much closer to engineering a breach. Taking their fingerprints and replacing them with your own and you might have a shot.

So how valuable is fingerprint data now?

temujin987 said:

why would anyone do that?

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Get outa jail free card by pointing the cops at someone else while you enjoy the bounty of your misdeeds. They won't look harder then they have to for a guilty body, proven many times.