Hello,
Many nations collect biometric data such as fingerprints as part of their national ID system, as well when going through immigration. I would imagine this get used during internal travel as well in some countries.
China The nation that made a copy of the data¹ may be able to integrate it with their existing fingerprint capture and recognition systems not just to detect US government employees attempting to enter their country under false pretenses (i.e., as a businessperson, tourist, student, part of a cultural exchange, et cetera), but possibly even their own citizens or residents from other countries that may be in the employ of the US.
And, of course, China the nation that copied the biometric data may also share it with allied nations so that they may do the same, as well.
So, there are some immediate security risks associated with the biometric data being used for identification, as opposed to be using for authentication purposes as a part of compromising federal computer systems.
I would be unsurprised if the intelligence community was working on medical methods of altering fingerprints, palm prints, retinas and the like for the purpose of deceiving biometric sensors.
¹I think BoingBoing has established that they do not believe digital information can be stolen.
