www.engadget.com/entry/1234000680038409
Biometric fingerprint Turns out there is a very unfortunate downside to using a biometric finge rprint scanner to lock and unlock your car doors: when thieves want to s teal your car theyll simply cut off the necessary digit and go to town. Which is exactly what happpened to an accountant in Malaysia by the nam e of K Kumaran who was accosted by four men who wanted his Mercedes S-Cl ass, forcing him to use his finger to start the car up and then tied him up in the back seat. So far, so good, but later, after they discovered that they couldnt restart the car, they decided to cut off his index fi nger with a machete and abscond with the vehicle, leaving him naked and bleeding by the side of the road.
Add your comments) Reader Comments 1 Posted Mar 31, 2005, 2:28 PM ET by ikkedus Can't afford a Mercedes S-Class, do I need to worry too? I assume your fingerprints are normally all over the door and so. So, it more or less compares to the carkey that has it's image spra y painted over the whole car.
Posted Mar 31, 2005, 3:40 PM ET by Brent To #6 Jeff Wouldn't holding the thumb in your hand for 1 min make it close to body t emperature. If they're planning to part it, why need to take thumb with them.
Posted Mar 31, 2005, 4:43 PM ET by Spittle on My Monitor Thanks #12: "Enjoy the car, here's the thumb." I just cleaned spittle off this monitor and NOW it needs to be done again .
Posted Mar 31, 2005, 5:15 PM ET by James And when the finger started to go rotten what did they do? wait for the cops to show up because it's a damn expensive car that has fingerpr int technology which is also bound to have some sort of tracking device.
Bryan Costin Don't some more sophisticated fingerprint readers also check for actual b lood flow/pulse in the finger? That would be a lot more difficult to fak e in a severed digit than approximate body temperature.
Posted Mar 31, 2005, 5:37 PM ET by Anarquista #18, you're right, the newer fingerprint scanners are designed to get aro und this: " reads signals that bounce off skin when fingers are placed on a surface embedded with electric conductors. It first applies "an AC voltage with a variable frequency to at least one electric conductor," Marksteiner w rites. The system then records the frequency of electric resistance and conductivity, and the time intervals between each one. This character istic curve shape can be faked or simulated only with difficulty when us ing an artificial finger," Marksteiner writes. "In the case of a cut-off finger, the curve shape changes rapidly as a result of the skin tissue dying off."
I've read (so take the figures with a grain of salt) that a $25K to $30K car can be sold in parts for about $200K. So being able to start and drive the car may not be too important after the car is safely stashed where it can be disman tled. As for re-heating the thumb, just dunk it in your chili...
Posted Mar 31, 2005, 6:39 PM ET by I'm in the wrong business " I've read (so take the figures with a grain of salt) that a $25K to $30 K car can be sold in parts for about $200K." If this were the case, I could make a decent living by buying cars legitimately and selling the m as parts... What I've heard is that if one were to build a car from sp are parts, it'll cost a lot more than just buying the whole car, which s ounds true but it's not necessarily reciprocal. Anyway, thieves sell their loot as spare parts because it's easier and sa fer than trying to sell the whole cars outright. Most of the parts don't have recorded serial numbers that can be tracked, and the transactions are small enough that nobody bothers to check.
Posted Mar 31, 2005, 8:33 PM ET by BenWang I'm from Malaysia and I'm not suprised this happened. This guy would have been better off with a car GPS/GSM tracking system.
Posted Mar 31, 2005, 9:49 PM ET by Ah Beng Malaysia boleh! Add your comments Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry: inappropriate or p urely promotional comments may be removed. Email addresses are never dis played, but they are required to confirm your comments. To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we w ill make it a live link for you. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted no need to use <p> or <br> tags. Your name (required): Your email address (required, will not be shown to the public): Your sites URL (optional): Do you want us to remember your personal information for next time?
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