You would think that your fingerprints are pretty secure. After all unless someone went through all the effort to lift your prints from objects that you have touched, there’s no where else that someone else could get their hands on them, save for forcing you to give it to them. Well unfortunately it looks like that may no longer be the case.

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According to the Chaos Computer Club, they claim that they are able to reproduce your fingerprints simply based on photos alone. Speaking at the 31st annual Chaos Computer Club, Jan Krissler explained how he had managed to copy the thumbprint of Germany’s Defense Minister based on a photo.

Like we said previously fingerprints could be lifted from objects we’ve touched, but Krissler’s claim says that fingerprints can now be obtained used a standard camera. Combine this with a piece of software called VeriFinger, Krissler was able to pull the print using different angles and close up photos of his target.

Krissler also believes that because of his discovery that politicians will start wearing gloves in public now to prevent their prints from being stolen, but what do you guys think? Does this mean that fingerprint security has been pretty much rendered useless?

Filed in . Read more about Hacking and Security.