A New South Wales high school installed fingerprint scanners as a means to take attendance. The kids could get around the scanners with Gummi Bears.

Principal Bob Cox told the ABC that the system was preferred over swipe cards, which students can abuse by signing-in for each other.

But a litany of fingerprint scanners have fallen victim to bypass methods, many of which are explained publicly in detail on the internet. The hacks could potentially be used by students to make replicas of their own fingerprints, or lift those of others from imprints left on the reader.

Japanese cryptographer Tsutomu Matsumoto used gelatin, the ingredient in Gummi Bears, to forge a replica finger that fooled 11 fingerprint scanners during tests in 2002. Gelatine has virtually the same capacitance as a finger’s skin, meaning it can fool scanners designed to detect electrical charges within the human body.

The NSW Department of Education said in a statement that the software does not store digital copies of fingerprints, but creates templates of unique characteristics.

This should prevent stored fingerprint images from being stolen, but would not prevent students bypassing machines.

Yes, we’ve heard this before. It’s not storing the actual prints, except it is and it’s a matter of semantics. Maybe the school should have spent the money on educational items instead of prison and control items.