It’s a crime, I know, but I still had to smile at this news of technological ingenuity.
Five doctors at a Brazilian hospital have been suspended after they were accused of covering for absentee colleagues by using fake silicone fingers with their prints to fool biometric machines.
Globo television showed footage of a doctor touching her finger to the device, then using two fake digits to do the same for colleagues, and taking delivery of slips of paper indicating they had in fact clocked in to work.
. . .
So far five doctors have been suspended as part of the investigation.
The mayor of Ferraz de Vasconcelos, Acir Fillo, said there might be as many as 300 hospital employees who do not exist, except for fake fingers with their prints, but who get paid anyway.
There’s more at the link.
I guess this proves that we really are in the digit-al age!
Peter
Mythbusters did an episode on silicon fingerprints to get past scanners.
One has to wonder if you're so unimportant, unnoticed and under utilized that the only way the company knows if you're working is by whether or not you scanned your finger at the door, why is the company paying you at all?
By the same token, I've alway wondered why more companies don't utilize "flex time" options for their employees. Sure for some jobs (like presumably these doctors) it's vital that you are around at very specific times, but so many other jobs don't ally depend on your being at the office exactly at 8am and never leaving until exactly 5pm.
At my Place of Employment, the little old ladies were clocking each other in and out, so we went through punch card timeclocks, magnetic card, to a slow balky fingerprint reader timeclock. AFAIK, nothing happened to the little old ladies.
Yeah, there ARE those who will figure out a way to beat any tech out there… sigh