August 03, 2005
Laser Surface Authentication (LSA)
Nanotechnology has come up with a clever, simple (and potentially cheap) method for validating documents such as passports, which avoids the problems that go with biometrics etc. It’s called Laser Surface Authentication (LSA).
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4741809.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 08:36 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
June 29, 2005
Eclectech on Clarke and ID cards
Eclectech have a new Gilbert & Sullivan style animation - ‘the very model of a modern labour minister : a tribute to Charles Clarke and his ID cards’.
eclectech.co.uk/clarkeidcards.php
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:17 AM | TrackBack
June 28, 2005
ID card bill narrowly passes second reading
The ID card bill passed its second reading in the Commons this evening by just 31 votes, and the critical mass of opposition to the bill is growing all the time.
The chances are of defeating the bill outright may not be high, but the government are risking their credibility by failing to respond to technical, financial and civil liberties questions about the scheme. They face opposition from every side, and on every possible aspect of their plan.
If they sincerely wanted to bring in more accurate means of personal identification, they could hardly have drafted a more inept plan. They should have started by simply introducing biometrics on passports, before evaluating the results, and considering other applications of the technology.
See ID card news
MPs narrowly back ID cards plan: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4632299.stm#
Passport applicants face grilling: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4629545.stm
ID Database ‘not for sale’: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4624735.stm
Ministers plan to sell your ID card details to raise cash: news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=649780
ID cards ‘will not make us safer’: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4623539.stm
ID cards losing support as rising costs deter public: www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,1505880,00.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:30 PM | TrackBack
May 18, 2005
ID card refusal pledge
There is one major project on the Pledge Bank:
“I will refuse to register for an ID card but only if 3,000,000 people will sign up.”
Deadline: 1st January 2007
189 people have signed up (18 May 2005)
2,999,811 more needed
Posted by Simon Holledge at 03:27 PM | TrackBack
March 22, 2005
LSE study against ID cards
A London School of Economics (LSE) study has come out strongly against the government’s ID card scheme. The 115 page report by the Department of Information Systems supports the idea of a national identity system, but not the one being proposed.
“The proposed system unnecessarily introduces, at a national level, a new tier of technological and organisational infrastructure that will carry associated risks of failure. A fully integrated national system of this complexity and importance will be technologically precarious and could itself become a target for attacks by terrorists or others.”
www.lse.ac.uk/collections/pressAndInformationOffice/newsAndEvents/archives/2005/IDReport.htm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:26 AM | TrackBack
March 09, 2005
ID card technology
More on ID cards and relevant technology:
Bruce Schneier, well-known expert on security technology (‘security guru’ in the words of the Economist), has been criticizing the ID card scheme, “ID cards are a waste of money… . They will not reduce crime, fraud or illegal immigration … We are living in a world where governments are looking for more control. They are looking for measures that increase control. It is being sold as security but it is really control,” he said. (Thanks to Murky.org for this information)
Meanwhile the Department of Homeland Security in Washington will be using an RFID-chipped ID card from May. This will contain biometric information and will be used for all kinds of access - physical, wired and wireless, including logging on to computers. Critics have questioned the security of RFID which can be accessed by remote readers. RFID chips have been successfully hacked in the past.
www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,66801,00.html/wn_ascii
Posted by Simon Holledge at 04:53 PM | TrackBack
February 26, 2005
Holyrood rejects ID cards
Holyrood have voted against ID cards with the SNP, the Conservatives and the Greens opposed, and the Liberal Democrats abstaining. The vote was 52 to 47.
The motion was: That the Parliament notes the Identity Cards Bill currently being considered by the Westminster Parliament; is concerned at the lack of time devoted to the scrutiny of this Bill, which has left important questions unanswered over how the identity card scheme will work in practice; believes the proposals to be flawed on political, technical and financial grounds; is concerned that the national identity card and database offer an ineffective response to problems of security and fraud and pose an unacceptable threat to civil liberties; notes that the current cost estimate for the scheme is £5.5 billion and that further escalation of this cost is expected; rejects the Prime Minister’s belief, stated on 1 December 2004 in the House of Commons, that “it is legitimate and right, in this day and age, to ask people to carry identity cards” which appears to go far beyond the current scope of the Bill and would require the consent of the Scottish Parliament; welcomes the Scottish Executive’s position that identity cards will not be required to allow access to devolved public services, and calls on the Executive to make a full statement on the intended use of the identity database by devolved institutions.
The Identity Cards Bill is about to be considered by the Lords in Westminster, but with the election coming the bill may eventually be abandoned. If the measure is re-introduced later, I suppose there is a chance it may be improved providing someone in the Home Office takes the trouble to research the technical issues involved. The Holyrood vote is a gesture - maybe not an insignificant one?
Footnote: It’s a pain searching for the debate and the vote on the Scottish Parliament website - really inferior to the Westminster ‘They Work For You’ site.
news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=428&id=213172005
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4292893.stm
www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-05/sor0224-02.htm#Col14711
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:24 AM | TrackBack
February 25, 2005
RFID in e-passports
The State Department is now proposing that the new American electronic passports (e-passports) should have an unencrypted radio frequency identification (RFID) chip, confirming the basic data written in the passport.
Critics say this is insecure as the chips can be read from 10 to 30 feet away, and suggest contact chips should be used instead.
The technical arguments are relevant to us because the United States is also asking Britain to issue e-passports to those of us intending to visit America.
www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,66686,00.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 04:39 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 17, 2005
ID theft
Hackers in California have stolen sensitive data, including social security numbers, on 35,000 people from a company working for the government. It’s happened before. California now has a unique law requiring customers to be alerted if there are breaches in data security. Other states are considering introducing similar legislation.
Security is also one of the many concerns with the British ID card and database scheme. Centralizing information makes us more vulnerable to identity theft.
www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,66628,00.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:41 PM | TrackBack
January 02, 2005
Labour rejected ID cards in 1974
Records reveal Roy Jenkins was against introducing ID cards in 1974 (in response to IRA bombing in Birmingham), which “apart from creating difficulties for ordinary people would be extremely expensive and largely ineffective”.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4139049.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:57 PM | TrackBack
October 21, 2004
RFID chips to be put in US passports
The Americans are introducing passports with embedded 64 kb radio frequency identification (RFID) chips. The idea is to make passports more secure and harder to forge.
Information is not encrypted (because foreign governments are involved) but will bear a US government digital signature. The idea is that the information on the chip, including name, address, date and place of birth and a photo, should correspond with the information in the passport.
RFID is now used to track the flow of goods in supermarkets, also pets and livestock. Some people are sceptical about whether security will really be improved by including chips in passports. However the chips will make it easier for companies with the right equipment (hotels for example) to collect personal data.
www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,65412,00.html/wn_ascii
Posted by Simon Holledge at 08:11 PM | TrackBack
October 18, 2004
ID cards: Home Office submission
On 28 April 2004 I made a submission to the Home Office as follows:
I am against a compulsory system of ID cards and might consider refusing to carry one. Nevertheless I welcome the introduction of reliable systems of identity verification that are not under the control of the state.
I have had to carry ID cards in two countries (Hong Kong in the early 1980s and Japan in the 1990s), and in both cases the system was problematic, giving the police power to harass ordinary citizens on the street, while driving those without cards underground and towards organized crime.
I also have plenty of experience of database operating errors here in Britain! I doubt very much whether the government have the competence to run an advanced ID card system efficiently. Judging by the cost of the scheme as published, a very large amount of money (that could be better used elsewhere) would be wasted, while those adversely affected by system failures would face curtailment of their basic rights. The individual with a problematic card would be guilty until proven innocent - that is implicit in a compulsory system - and vice versa, the criminal/illegal/terrorist with an (apparently) clean card would be in the clear!
Documents such as passports and driving licences are acceptable because they contain relevant information, which the holder can access, verify, and produce in appropriate circumstances. An ID card with hidden information that belongs to the state, rather than the citizen, is an instrument of power over the citizen that can be used arbitrarily.
In the States, some people have addressed the problem of introducing ID cards that don’t threaten basic rights, by emphasizing verification rather than identification. Essentially the individual rather than the state would be in control. The idea is to have a card with encrypted information (not available to government) that could be decrypted when appropriate by a finger print scan (or some other form of biometric data check). Steven Brill’s private ‘Verified Identity’ card, see www.verifiedidpass.com , is an example of this kind of project (see also Jeffrey Rosen, The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age, Random House, 2004). We should look at a similar scheme for use in Britain.
Finally - as admitted in the consultation document - there are limits to the legal applicability of the proposed scheme to Scotland. ID cards, as such, are not a ‘reserved matter’ and should be handled by the Scottish Parliament not Westminster. In this context, the inclusion of Glasgow in the pilot scheme was a provocation.
I would be grateful if you could acknowledge that this message has been read and properly considered.
Sincerely etc.
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:28 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Against ID cards
David Blunkett and the Home Office are proceeding with the promotion of ID cards, regardless of all the criticism that has been levelled at the scheme.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3738760.stm
I cannot remember a public question on which government have so consistently confused all the issues. At the same time they have ignored every reasoned criticism of the scheme on technical, financial and moral grounds. Blunkett is willing to put forward any and every plausible argument in favour of introducing the cards, and yet it remains unclear why he and his officials really want them.
Liberty have a special campaign against ID cards and are currently appealing for funds for it. There is also the No2ID website.
www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/privacy/id-cards.shtml
www.no2id.net/content/join.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:09 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack