Sweet bypass for student finger scanner

An Australian high school has installed "secure" fingerprint scanners for roll call, which replaces the school's traditional sign-in system with biometric readers that require senior students to have their fingerprints read to verify attendance.

Henry Kendall High School has pitched the system to parents as a convenient way for students to clock in and out of school during their irregular hours. Principal Bob Cox told the ABC that the system was preferred over swipe cards, which students can abuse by signing-in for each other.

But a litany of fingerprint scanners have fallen victim to bypass methods, many of which are explained publicly in detail on the internet. The hacks could potentially be used by students to make replicas of their own fingerprints, or lift those of others from imprints left on the reader. For example, Japanese cryptographer Tsutomu Matsumoto used gelatin, the ingredient in Gummi Bears, to forge a replica finger that fooled 11 fingerprint scanners during tests

For more on this story, read Sweet bypass for student finger scanner on ZDNet Australia.