The idea to protect against this kind of replay attack was that if the algorithm was unsure of the scan it could request a new one, validate it and present it to the user in case of low confidence biometric match or high confidence forgery: the point being that humans are good at detecting the kind of tampering that could fool an algorithm and vice versa.

This required to send the biometric scan to the peer and to validate it on the other side of the communication channel instead that on the device.

Well, we weren't technically using it as password in the end, I guess I'll have a closer look at what they're doing. And check if that old patent is still good. Eheh not that I have any rights to it left of course.

>"The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys." -- Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the British Post Office, 1876.

Radio, planes and xrays:

>"Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax." -- William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, British scientist, 1899.

The grand canyon: >"Ours has been the first, and doubtless to be the last, to visit this profitless locality." -- Lt. Joseph Ives, after visiting the Grand Canyon in 1861.

Oil drilling: >"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." -- Workers whom Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

Nuclear energy: >"There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will." -- Albert Einstein, 1932.

The Germ theory: >"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." -- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872.

Brain surgery: >The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon." -- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

All taken from: http://www.rinkworks.com/said/predictions.shtml

The first postal services were formed long before that; there were definitely some in the late 17th Century, may have been earlier.

Mastercard is one of the companies trying really hard to prevent pin numbers from happening.

It's almost as if an executive heard that "biometric" is happening, and decided to take a bet on it.

100% on that. Money is lost all the time, but thanks to that retroactive liability, the bank and/or merchant loses it instead of the consumer. Security for the consumer is already as good as it could possibly get, so they're really saving themselves and their merchants. This is a good thing, because they have a much more direct incentive to save themselves money than to save you money.

In a competitive credit card market (which we may not really have, but that's a different problem) an issuer reducing the incidence of lost would be able to compete better by either lowering charges or providing greater benefits while making the same profit, forcing other issuers to match those features or be driven out of the market.