Can Play-Doh and Gummi Bears Fool Fingerprint Scanners?

Fingerprint scanners have typically been considered one of the more dependable (and therefore popular) security technologies -- reliable, intuitive and largely foolproof.  Recently, though, cryptographers have experimented with materials that can simulate a human thumb and bear a bogus fingerprint that a scanner might accept. 

The results have been sobering enough for some information security experts to recommend a complete rethinking of fingerprint technology.  Materials as common as Play-Doh and Gummi Bears have been shown to retain forged fingerprints that scanners then read as authentic.  In one test run by a Japanese cryptographer, a false finger made from Gummi Bears fooled a fingerprint scanner 80% of the time!

Source: RealTechNews