Saturday
There is a great little article in Slashdot about a well known German hacker group, Chaos Computer Club, publishing the fingerprints of German Secretary of the Interior as part of their protest against state use of biometric ID.
The club published 4,000 copies of their magazine Die Datenschleuder including a plastic foil reproducing the minister's fingerprint - ready to glue to someone else's finger to provide a false biometric reading. The CCC has a page on their site detailing how to make such a fake fingerprint
Sweet. I suppose that is a 'hardware hack' of sorts!
The CCC are great folks. I spent a week at What The Hack, an outdoor hacking conference in the Netherlands back in 2005. The Dutch hackers managed to hire one of the new high-security, anti-terror X-rays and setup a "DIY security checkpoint". They also gave the on-site police bright pink wristbands and advised the attendees to "not do anything too illegal". The police ignored the large amount of Internet piracy, decimating proprietary security mechanisms, helping each other setup military-strength encryption, the spreading of interesting truths about their lust for power, and the tent setup to smoke weed in. Good times.
Be sure to put a strong password on your laptop and install an up-to-date firewall before you go to a hacking convention though.
Posted by Tom Morris at March 30, 2008 12:23 AM
I've got a bunch of friends in the CCC. They're the good guys.
Several years ago they put out a video showing how to make fake fingerprints that you can wear reasonably undetectably:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M8D4wWYgsc
Posted by Bruce Hoult at March 30, 2008 12:51 AM
The obvious solution is to cut off everyone's fingers. That way the fingerprint ID system will be perfect. (Next month, total retinas scan security.)
Posted by Paul from Florida at March 30, 2008 03:01 AM
Vorsprung durch technick!
Am offering a reward for Jacqui Smith's fingerprints.
Posted by Guido Fawkes at March 30, 2008 10:02 AM
Well, let's be pedantic about this one: Kämpft gegen die Macht! is a correct literal translation. "Kampf der Macht" would adopt the form of other slogans (like "Kampf dem Kapitalismus").
Posted by rantingkraut at March 31, 2008 02:49 AM
Kampf der Macht sounds more like "Fight of the Power", which is surely what we are fighting against!
Posted by Adam at March 31, 2008 12:17 PM
As a bilingual former translator and journalist, I would say KAMPF DER ALLMACHT.
It comes from the feeling of powerlessness against the forces who rule (and fleece) those who haven't got the money to defend themselves.
Posted by Ally Hauptmann-Gurski at May 12, 2008 05:04 AM
