Re:Chaos Computer Club breaks Apple TouchID
by brazzy on Sunday September 22, 2013 @04:56PM
(#6427976)
> The statistically likelihood of matches between distinct parties is in some cases well under the population of the world.
I thought that was pretty much always the case. Which is why DNA evidence is never used alone - you don't take DNA traces found at a scene of crime, run it against a huge database, find a match, close the case and try and sentence the matching person.
Instead you either investigate whether that matching person had means and motive and no alibi, or (more often) you check the DNA only against people you already suspect for whatever reasons.
Both variants reduce the likelihood of false positives by quite a few orders of magnitude.
I thought that was pretty much always the case. Which is why DNA evidence is never used alone - you don't take DNA traces found at a scene of crime, run it against a huge database, find a match, close the case and try and sentence the matching person.
Instead you either investigate whether that matching person had means and motive and no alibi, or (more often) you check the DNA only against people you already suspect for whatever reasons.
Both variants reduce the likelihood of false positives by quite a few orders of magnitude.