We’re sorry. The land of the free and the home of the brave has been relocated to… Germany.
So in Germany, they’ve been planning to include biometric data in things like e-passports.
And the (awesome band of hackers) Chaos Computer Club wanted none of it.
So they somehow got the fingerprint of the secretary of the interior (Wolfgang Schäuble) and published it. Hugely. In their magazine, on foil, with instructions on how to overlay it onto your own finger, making you scan biometrically as the secretary. A bazillion random Germans could, in e-passports, pass as Schäuble.
I find this awesome.
The government is considering legal action.
Schäuble has been going on and on about how taking fingerprints wouldn’t really be a breach of security. I’m intrigued to see how he reacts to this.
the original news story, in german
best comment I’ve seen so far: “in other news, German officials have stopped touching things.“
Thoughts? Justice or overkill (or both)?
Pippin replied:
Reading more and more about the CCC, I have grown amazed at the level of effort they take to show the people the government’s control.
…aaaand, then I glance at the US. Bitching at Bush, ooh! How scary! We really need people to publicly point out, to the unthinking majority, what is going on.
Only, that would be ‘terrorism’.
The closest thing we have is… Anonymous and 4chan. Good. Lord.
9 April, 2008 at 11:29 am. Permalink.