- Plastic fingers are known to be able to outsmart many fingerprint scanners. 
Therefore, special hardware and software have since been developed to prevent 
cases of such counterfeit. The LivDet competition compares the efficiency of 
these detection methods. The software of the German company DERMALOG is again 
number 1 in protecting identification systems against fake fingerprints.

Plastic fingers or other artificial fingerprints can trick fingerprint 
scanners. There are many cases where unauthorized persons have gained access to 
smartphones, databases and other protected areas. This is possible by copying 
the fingerprint pattern of a real-life person onto plastic or other materials, 
creating an artificial finger or fingerprint overlay that can be used to spoof 
fingerprint-based systems with a false identity.

What can be done against these known fraud attempts? The answer is provided by 
a technology called Presentation Attack Detection (PAD), also known as liveness 
detection. PAD detects via hardware or software whether a real or a fake finger 
is placed on a scanner.

Every two years, software-based liveness detection solutions are benchmarked in 
the so-called LivDet competition, hosted by the University of Cagliari in Italy 
since 2009. This year, a total of 23 companies and academic institutions 
submitted their solutions to LivDet. First place again was awarded to DERMALOG 
from Germany with the highest overall score in detecting fake fingerprints. 
Furthermore, the Hamburg-based company achieved first and second place with two 
different liveness detection algorithms.

"Presentation Attack Detection is an essential part of all fingerprinting 
systems today to prevent fraud and identity theft. We are very proud to be a 
leader in this technology for many years," says DERMALOG CEO Gunther Mull.

DERMALOG is the largest German manufacturer of biometric systems for 
fingerprint, face and iris identification, with 250 large-scale installations 
in more than 100 countries. The company also provides hardware and software for 
multi-biometric systems combining different biometric features such as face and 
fingerprints.

- Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com) -

Press contact

DERMALOG Identification Systems GmbH
Sven Böckler
Media Relations
+49 (0)40 413 227 - 0
info@dermalog.com
www.dermalog.com

Source: DERMALOG Identification Systems GmbH