Proactive forensic science in biometrics: Novel materials for fingerprint spoofing

Abstract Motivated by the need to prepare for the next generation of fingerprint spoofing, we applied the “proactive forensic science” strategy to the biometric field. The working concept, already successful in a few fields, aimed at adopting the sophisticated criminals' way of thinking, predicting their next move so that the crime‐fighting authorities can be one step ahead of them and take preventive measures, against biometric spoofing in this instance. This strategy involved the design, production, and characterization of innovative polymeric materials that could possibly serve in advanced fingerprint spoofs. Special attention was given to materials capable of fooling fingerprint readers equipped with spoof‐detecting abilities, known as “Presentation Attack Detection” (PAD) systems and often referred to as liveness detection. A series of direct cast fake fingerprints was produced from known commercially available spoofing materials, and was functionally tested to compare their performance with that of spoofs produced from the new polymers. The novel materials thus prepared were hydrogels based on polyethylene glycols (PEGs) that were chain‐extended. They showed good performance in deceiving security systems, considerably better than that of spoofs produced from commercial materials, and are, therefore, good spoofing candidates that law‐enforcement authorities should be aware of.