The risk of biometrics

From WND:

Police in Malaysia are hunting for members of a violent gang who chopped off a car owner’s finger to get round the vehicle’s hi-tech security system. The car, a Mercedes S-class, was protected by a fingerprint recognition system…. The attackers forced Mr Kumaran to put his finger on the security panel to start the vehicle, bundled him into the back seat and drove off.

But having stripped the car, the thieves became frustrated when they wanted to restart it. They found they again could not bypass the immobiliser, which needs the owner’s fingerprint to disarm it. They stripped Mr Kumaran naked and left him by the side of the road – but not before cutting off the end of his index finger with a machete.

Like it was hard to see this coming. Chipping children to “protect” them from kidnappers and whatnot is only going to ensure a little ad hoc surgery is performed. You would think that somewhere within the giant Mercedes organizatio, there would be one person who would stop to think through the obvious implications of their new “security” system.

Mr. Kumaran is lucky that his car didn’t have a retina-scanning system. Even if it didn’t work for the thieves, that would be little consolation.