Biometric Devices Sold on eBay Contained US Military Data

German researchers who purchased biometric capture devices on eBay have reported that they discovered sensitive US military data stored on their memory cards.

The data reportedly included fingerprints, iris scans, photographs, names and descriptions of people, mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq – many of whom worked with the US army.

The researchers, who are the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), which had previously made a name for itself exposing security flaws with other systems and devices, explained that the US military used biometric devices to capture people’s data in Afghanistan. The biometric devices were used to identify individuals, and ‘on used US military equipment, we discovered, among other things, an unprotected biometrics database containing names, fingerprints, iris scans, and photographs of more than 2,600 Afghans and Iraqis,’ the researchers noted.