Feed Editor 15 May 2007 11:29:20 GMT http://www.ourworldoursay.org/id_card_free_zone.php http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 en http://www.ourworldoursay.org/images/rss-icon-med.gif Latest NO2ID Cards Articles Unions representing airline and airport staff are to tell home secretary Jacqui Smith that her plan to force staff to carry identity cards will add nothing to airport security The Trade Unions Congress says Smith is adding complexity and expense to an already secure system. Its representatives will meet Smith later this week, reports The Register. The Congress has already written to tell her that: "Unions representing the airport workforce recognise the need for effective security measures but see no evidence that these proposals would enhance airport security arrangements." Concerns about the trialling of the government's National Identity Scheme on airport staff include the extra expense and delays for new recruits. The unions also believe the cards will do little to provide extra security and are worried the project has no real future, given the possibility of a Conservative government abolishing the scheme. 30 Jul 2008 13:13:06 GMT http://www.kablenet.com/kd.nsf/Frontpage/DE1B7DCC62C080468025748D00505663?OpenDocument D31B405B-92A0-464E-9ADF-EC8B378C06BF Kablenet The first group of workers to be have compulsory ID cards forced on them have warned Jacqui Smith that the measure will not improve security. Union staff representing airport workers will this week meet the Home Secretary as a matter of "urgency" to discuss their concerns. When ministers announced the plans to phase in compulsory ID cards, airport workers were chosen as the first people to have to carry them. The Government has been determined to bring the scheme in, despite claims that it is a costly waste of time. However, the Home Secretary is now facing strong criticism from the unions as well as opposition parties. In a letter to Miss Smith, Frances O'Grady, the deputy general secretary of the TUC, said the issue was also one of civil liberties. She said: "Unions representing the airport workforce recognise the need for effective security measures, but see no evidence at all that these proposals that these proposals would enhance airport security arrangements. 30 Jul 2008 13:12:00 GMT http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/2437861/Jacqui-Smith-warned-by-first-group-to-be-given-ID-cards-that-they-will-not-improve-security.html Andrew Porter A340690E-8A08-4528-803D-FA5E643ECB98 The Daily Telegraph It's not going to be compulsory to carry around ID cards. Honestly. So said Stephen Harrison, policy director at the ID & Passport Service, when asked today at the Westminster eForum on ID cards, surveillance and data protection. Further questioning elicited more explanation: no, you won't have to carry it around all the time, only when you want to use public services. Then: it's "not a tool for police to demand your papers", but if you are suspected of committing a crime, police can ask you to prove your identity, as before. Eh? This brings us back to "what's the point then?" - in a system that's supposed to stop terrorism/whatever, there's no benefit to having ID cards unless everyone has to carry them around all the time. Stop Joe Criminal and give him the option of popping along to the police station later to bring in his ID card, and you think he'll show up? 30 Jul 2008 13:09:52 GMT http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10005635o-2000331761b,00.htm David Meyer 4C294EBD-D4A9-4DD0-A378-027619A3D00F ZDnet Every household in Britain has forked out the equivalent of £800 each to support Britain's 'surveillance society,' a report said yesterday. Overall, the government has poured in almost £20billion to fund the technologies - mainly the DNA database, the identity cards scheme and CCTV cameras. The current ask of the taxpayer of £19.8bn also includes the cost of troubled 'Chip and Bin' schemes and the misuse of anti-terrorism laws by local authorities. Regardless of individual taxpayers' views on each of the measures, brought in to tackle terrorism, the report set out to highlight their cost and effectiveness. As the stakes couldn't be higher over terrorism and the appropriate response", the TaxPayers Alliance extended its research to the costs of dealing with detected threats. 30 Jul 2008 13:08:40 GMT http://www.contractoruk.com/news/003867.html 1A6BA0D4-24C5-4E32-A10C-EC950ACA0095 Contractor UK The cost of Britain's "surveillance society" measures is now running at £20 billion, a new report reveals today. The amount is equivalent to £800 per household and includes £19 billion for the planned ID card system and £500 million for CCTV cameras. The report by the TaxPayers' Alliance was highlighted by David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, who stands in a by-election this week on the issue of civil liberties. Mr Davis resigned as an MP after the opposition failed to defeat Government plans to hold terrorism suspects for 42 days. Mr Davis said: “This is yet further damning evidence of Big Brother's expensive tastes. ID cards, CCTV, the DNA database and other measures are a huge waste of taxpayers' money on policies that undermine freedom and are utterly ineffective in fighting crime or terrorism. 30 Jul 2008 13:06:35 GMT http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/2259877/%27Big-Brotherandrsquo-government-costs-us-andpound20billion.html Andrew Porter F5229034-B1D7-42BB-86CF-EB9A9E8A793A The Daily Telegraph Over 75? Show us your retinas instead Yet more trouble assails the government's £4.4bn National Identity Scheme (NIS), as an official report puts the boot into the preferred scheme for “exception handling" - and a bunch of techies show how the recommended system can be beaten. Official trouble comes in the form of the latest annual report (pdf) from the Biometrics Assurance Group (BAG), published very quietly toward the end of June. It is not hard to see why. The report expresses particular concern over plans for exception handling of fingerprints: “it would be a large part of the NIS (for example, more than 4 million people are over the age of 75 in the UK, a group for which it is hard to obtain good quality fingerprints)." 30 Jul 2008 13:05:26 GMT http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/10/id_national_identity_scheme/ John Ozimek A936F6A8-7580-4106-9A05-8187D7F414E9 The Register Large branch network begs for biometric protection Ministers are in talks with the Post Office over proposals for the latter to handle biometric enrolment and distribution for ID cards and biometric passports, reports the Guardian. The Post Office already operates a 'check and send' service for passports, and there is therefore some logic to extending this to the collection of fingerprints once these are required. According to the most recent schedule/delay, this is intended to happen in 2012, but ID cards will arrive sooner for some groups, "workers in sensitive roles" in late 2009 and youthful volunteers in 2010. 30 Jul 2008 13:03:50 GMT http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/20/post_office_id_contracts/ John Lettice 95FD879C-DCC2-4FDE-847E-ED878A2B88F5 The Register Millions of identity cards are carrying a serious security flaw that allows them to be cloned by anyone with a standard laptop,The Times has learnt. The Mifare smartcard, which is used to gain access to thousands of schools, hospitals and government departments around Britain, as well as providing the technology behind 17 million Oyster cards for travel in London, was hacked into by scientists at a Dutch university. Bart Jacobs, of Radboud University, used a commercial laptop to clone a swipe access card to a public building in the Netherlands. His team then travelled to London, where they used the same technique to ride on the Underground for a day without paying. Security experts said that the breach posed a serious risk to security as swipe cards to sensitive areas could be cloned with ease. 30 Jul 2008 13:02:42 GMT http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4184481.ece Alexi Mostrous 771E7B16-C047-4C22-85EA-0454B70A284B The Times A proliferation of different fingerprint reading machines will be used in government programmes Standardised readers will not be mandated by the IPS The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) will not mandate the use of any particular type of hardware for collecting biometrics under the National Identity Scheme. A report by the Biometric Assurance Group to the IPS has noted that a proliferation of different fingerprint reading machines will be used in government programmes. But the IPS said that it will only mandate accuracy standards, not specific technology. "In the case of fingerprints, image data and quality standards are imposed rather than mandating hardware choices as this brings its own problems," the group was advised by the IPS. 30 Jul 2008 12:41:29 GMT http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2219898/ips-mandate-fingerprint-readers Tom Young D219DA05-C781-4EDF-8B08-332C936F0943 Computing The Prime Minister used a speech in London to defend his Government's record on civil liberties in the light of last week's Labour rebellion over the detention of terror suspects and the high-profile challenge being mounted by David Davis, the former Tory front bencher. Some 36 Labour MPs last week voted against the Government's plans to hold terror suspects without trial for up to 42 days, with Mr Davis subsequently announcing that he would resign and fight a by-election on the issue. Mr Brown began his premiership last year promising to extend legal freedoms, but has faced growing criticism over his actions in office. 30 Jul 2008 12:40:08 GMT http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/2145113/Tougher-terror-laws-and-ID-cards-actually-enhance-freedoms%2C-claims-Gordon-Brown.html James Kirkup 5FBEED7F-F061-4665-A8D7-6795BAF48702 Daily Telegraph In Shetland a vulnerable section of the community is being used to pilot a scheme that threatens our fundamental freedoms. It is quite clear that the new 'National Entitlement Card' that provides access to free travel for the elderly and disabled, in fact marks the introduction of ID Cards by the back door. My research shows that: * This is an EU scheme being carried out by the UK government and the Scottish Executive. * The government is planning a stealth programme for ID cards, the steps for which are: introduction, the current stage where we are offered the bribe of free travel full coverage, everybody is required to have one full compulsion sounds good in a free country - and finally full identity services availability - in other words you can get no access to services without the card. 30 Jul 2008 12:38:38 GMT http://www.idcardsexposed.com/index.htm Stuart Hill 76554724-04DB-4B88-B628-C5E5A5B91DBC ID Cards Exposed A compulsory national identity card scheme could be used to monitor the movements of British citizens because of the dangers of "function creep", a committee of MPs warned yesterday. Britain is in danger of turning into a "surveillance society", the Commons home affairs select committee says in a report which calls on the government to promise that the multibillion-pound ID card scheme will not be used as a matter of routine to spy on people. "We are concerned about the potential for 'function creep' in terms of the surveillance potential of the national identity scheme," the cross-party committee concluded. "Any ambiguity about the objectives of the scheme puts in jeopardy the public's trust in the scheme itself and in the government's ability to run it." 30 Jul 2008 12:27:00 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jun/09/idcards.civilliberties?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront Nicholas Watt E725B585-E3F2-4906-9F38-C60061B4C402 The Guardian Identity cards could be used by the Government to create a 'surveillance society' spying on British citizens, a damning Commons report warned yesterday. The all-party home affairs select committee called for safeguards to ensure the state did not use the compulsory cards to delve into private lives. Ministers were also urged to make sure fraudsters, terrorists or blackmailers could not 'disastrously' steal details belonging to 50million citizens who will be on the £20billion database. And the MPs called on the Government to limit the data collected to avoid becoming a spy state such as the former East Germany. The report said: 'We are concerned... about the potential for "function creep" in terms of the surveillance potential of the National Identity Scheme. 30 Jul 2008 09:47:29 GMT http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1024989/Whitehall-watching-ID-cards-let-Government-snoop-lives-warn-MPs.html Adam Drury 47625AE6-EA9C-42C0-8D6E-5BDD89F3EF6E The Daily Mail The Home Affairs Committee has called for a reduction in the unnecessary collection of data on UK citizens. The move comes just weeks after the government shortlisted five IT suppliers on its ID card project and after plans were revealed that it wanted to make a database of all phone calls and emails in the UK. Last week, IT industry commentators speaking to Computerworld UK said the government should also urgently reconsider the £12.4bn NHS IT programme for a centralised database of patient records. And last year, HM Revenue & Customs lost 25 million child benefit records. In its report, called 'A Surveillance Society? ', the Home Affairs Committee called on the government to "adopt a principle of data minimisation", and only hold data "for as long as is necessary". The government should "resist a tendency to collect more personal information and establish larger databases", the committee said. 30 Jul 2008 09:45:32 GMT http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=13345& Leo King 8588DD37-6086-470F-9F2E-1A679AA58E51 Computerworld UK The compulsory identity card could be used to carry out surveillance on people, MPs warned today. Members of the Home Affairs Select Committee said it was concerned that the way the authorities use sensitive data gathered in the multi-billion pound programme could "creep" to include spying. The all-party committee also urged ministers to make plans on how to deal with the theft of personal details from the National Identity Scheme, which will build a massive database on every person over 16 in Britain. It accepted ministers' assurances that surveillance was not part of current plans, but asked for a guarantee that no expansion would take place without MPs' approval. "We are concerned ... about the potential for 'function creep' in terms of the surveillance potential of the National Identity Scheme," the report said. 30 Jul 2008 09:25:01 GMT http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/2145113/Tougher-terror-laws-and-ID-cards-actually-enhance-freedoms%2C-claims-Gordon-Brown.html 8D77BA69-1F8C-43B2-8D80-320F5CB3C92C Daily Telegraph The government should limit the data it collects on citizens for its ID card scheme to avoid creating a surveillance society, a group of MPs has warned. The home affairs select committee called for proper safeguards on the plans for compulsory ID cards to stop "function creep" threatening privacy. It wants a guarantee the scheme will not be expanded without MPs' approval. The Ministry of Justice said it had to balance protecting the public with protecting a right to privacy 30 Jul 2008 09:24:00 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7441693.stm AD8987D8-BF59-4B85-A29B-2611CBFC38FB BBC Last month's announcement that all five remaining suppliers bidding for £2bn-worth of contracts for the government's ID card programme have gone through to the next round has prompted critics to question the rigour of the procurement process. The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has yet to reject a single bidder from the original shortlist of eight ­- Accenture, BAE Systems and Steria dropped out of their own accord ­- while CSC, EDS, Fujitsu, IBM and Thales all went through to the next round. IPS operations director Bill Crothers defended the process, saying that a move to drop a supplier would have been for PR purposes alone. 29 Jul 2008 18:07:55 GMT http://www.vnunet.com/computing/news/2218285/id-card-critics-query-4040984 Tom Young 8D6744A0-A20B-4268-922C-95C26883E4B3 VNunet Lecturers voted overwhelmingly to oppose and defy the government's plans to introduce identity cards at the University and College annual congress in Manchester today. The government plans to pilot the controversial identity cards with international students, which lecturers warned could deter them from choosing to study in the UK. In January, the Tories accused the government of "blackmailing" students into holding identity cards in order to get student loans. Dave Goode from Cambridge University, who proposed the motion that was passed, talked of the "horror and contempt" of identity cards and called on members to back the NO2ID campaign. 29 Jul 2008 17:52:14 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/may/28/highereducation.uk8 Anthea Lipsett 56B8F997-CB25-4101-B18C-C7681287FDA1 The Guardian The competition to find companies to build the UK's Identity Card Scheme looked like a shoe-in today when the Home Office gave all five bidders a taste of the £5 billion business. They also won a blank cheque each for related business from other government departments without having to go through the palaver of another official " competition" under EU rules every time. The five bidders will form the Strategic Supplier Group, and will between them divvy up the design of the Identity Cards system, which will allow the government to check if people are who they say they are, and to track their movements in a database. 29 Jul 2008 17:51:06 GMT http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/24/id-contest-takes-losers Mark Ballard 59646F21-BB5A-45E3-AA17-BB869BAC58F3 The Inquirer The government is facing more calls to cancel its ID card scheme after it announced that all of the five remaining IT suppliers have now been short-listed to deliver the system. Opponents questioned whether the complex £2bn system has any chance of being run effectively or competitively when the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has just five companies left to choose from and five parts of the contract to fill. CSC, EDS, Fujitsu, IBM and Thales made the shortlist to win the five parts of the single "framework contract", including a £500m deal to replace the existing passport application system, the £500m biometric fingerprint and photograph database, the £500m card production scheme, a £10m self-contained scheme to produce the cards for "critical" workers such as airport staff and a scheme to provide parts of a UK Border Agency case-management system. 29 Jul 2008 17:49:46 GMT http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,39424178,00.htm?r=1 Nick Heath 880F9D96-C1E4-4AFA-A35A-0CAD4290AAE7 zdnet/silicon.com The government announced on Friday the five technology companies it will work with on its controversial 4.7 billion pound identity card scheme over the next 10 years. The Identity and Passport service said it had offered "framework" contracts to Computer Sciences Corporation, EDS, Fujitsu, IBM and Thales. The decision was widely expected after three other companies, Accenture, BAE Systems and Steria dropped out of the running earlier this year. 29 Jul 2008 17:48:23 GMT http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKL2383425920080523?rpc=401& D0D5436D-6BE3-41A1-B29D-98A3165E48AE Reuters The Identity and Passport Service has awarded £1.5bn worth of contracts over 10 years as it seeks to implement gradually the ID Cards scheme. The government plans to designate passports under the Identity Cards Act so that every adult applying for a British passport would need to register on the National Identity Register. The five suppliers chosen are CSC, EDS, Fujitsu, IBM and Thales. They have been invited to sign framework contracts in early June. They will then be invited to take part in mini competitions for specific contracts. The suppliers were chosen after staff at the Identity and Passport Service had 750 separate meetings with the companies. The suppliers were given scores and chosen on assessments of their capability, commercial strength and ability to work with each other and with the agency. 29 Jul 2008 17:44:58 GMT http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/05/23/230800/identity-and-passport-service-signs-up-five-suppliers.htm Tony Collins 43A348E5-5460-4BD0-9977-7F40B98634D6 Computer Weekly Meg Hillier MP says 'the public was largely supportive of the National Identity Scheme, many people had concerns about the fee involved' and then goes on to say 'most of the cost of the scheme was created not by the cards themselves, but by databases and supporting systems' Surely even someone of minimal intelligence can see therefore, that the most effective way to reduce the cost is to eliminate the central ID cards database - the most expensive part of the system accrding to Hillier and exactly the part of the system which people are concerned about. I have yet to see even an attempted justification by the government, or indeed anyone else, for the presence of the central database in the ID cards system. 29 Jul 2008 17:10:40 GMT http://www.zdnet.co.uk/talkback/0,1000001161,39397470-39001098c-20093391o,00.htm B76470DF-EEAF-4256-AA1E-AFD39B26FB8D ZDNet Two years after the passing of the Identity Cards Act in the UK, consultation on all aspects of the delivery plan for the roll-out of the National Identity Scheme is underway and will be concluded at the end of June (1). The timetable suggests that the feedback being sought will inform all subsequent secondary legislation. Given the broad scope of the Act (2), passed in March 2006, the way in which the legislation is put into effect should be a matter of considerable concern for everyone in the UK. The Identity Cards Act created a broad-ranging scheme for 'the provision of a secure and reliable method for registrable facts about such individuals to be ascertained or verified wherever that is necessary in the public interest'. For the purposes of the Act, 'public interest' means something related to national security, the prevention or detection of crime, immigration controls and unauthorised working, or the provision of public services, including welfare benefits. 29 Jul 2008 17:09:26 GMT http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5171/ Joanne Herlihy 9BA386C2-E907-4000-8386-837735B5795B Spiked A government database holding details of every phone call made, email sent and minute spent on the internet by the public could be created as part of a centralised fight against crime and terrorism, it emerged today. News of the proposal prompted alarm about the country's growing surveillance culture and raised fears of "data profiling" of citizens. It follows on from plans for databases for ID cards and NHS electronic patient records. Telecoms companies and internet service providers would be compelled to hand over their records to the Home Office under proposals that could find their way into the new data communications bill. 29 Jul 2008 17:07:27 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/may/20/justice.privacy?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront Anil Dawar 623FB6E4-23BA-4557-8CCA-E1E9841E2F2E The Guardian This column is utterly pointless. I'll say it now to save you the trouble later. It won't make a blind bit of difference to what Britain is becoming - a society in which ordinary citizens have no rights of privacy. Fifty years from now you won't be able to buy so much as a packet of condoms without producing a biometric ID card, linked to a government computer that logs (“for your own good") how much nookie you're getting - and probably where, when, how and with whom. But I'm going to write it anyway, because as far as I'm aware it's not yet forbidden to object to the imposition of sinister surveillance - though that will probably be only a matter of time. Besides, it's not good for my health to walk round with my blood boiling and steam coming out of my ears. 29 Jul 2008 17:05:52 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/article3576592.ece Richard Morrison 132C1B7B-6FEC-48EA-B9A1-0B40A83DA673 The Times The technology industry will next week learn who the Government has awarded contracts to supply the £2bn biometric identity card programme, the last and among the most secretive of the recent crop of major public-sector IT schemes. The framework deals under the hammer do not guarantee a role in the ID programme, but only those companies that win a place on the list will be eligible to compete for the lucrative work. According to insiders, best and final offers have been submitted by the shortlist of Fujitsu, IBM, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Thales and EDS. A decision is expected next Monday 29 Jul 2008 17:04:32 GMT http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/firms-await-verdict-on-1632bn-id-cards-project-830642.html Sarah Arnott F08C21FA-3F31-4F15-9838-246E4F4F5610 The Independent · Official report points to pitfalls in £4.4bn scheme · Panel says lack of security could cost public support An official report has warned that the government's plans for ID cards may put poorer people at greater risk of fraud, and that ministers are failing to coordinate implementation of the 10-year programme. In a blow to Downing Street, which insists that biometric technology will make ID cards safe, the report says people with a "rich biographical record" will have better protection when the cards are introduced by the target date of 2017. 29 Jul 2008 17:03:31 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/may/16/idcards.ukcrime Nicholas Watt B04CA597-B413-44DA-AD94-5B6C6D8295DC The Guardian Almost unnoticed last week, the Government announced it had shaved another £1 billion off the cost of its proposed identity card scheme. It did so by deciding to let the "open market" capture citizens' biometrics, effectively outsourcing the cost of enrolling people on to the ID database. You could end up getting your fingerprints taken at a supermarket, rather than at a passport office as originally proposed. Almost imperceptibly, the security architecture originally built around the ID card project has been dismantled. When it was proposed in 2002, the intention was to establish a bespoke database. David Blunkett, then Home Secretary, said: "We've got to build a clean identity database from scratch. We can't use the National Insurance numbers, as there are 20 million more National Insurance numbers than there are people in the country." But this idea was abandoned. Instead, biometrics will be stored on an existing system in the Home Office used for asylum seekers, biographical information will be held on a National Insurance database in the Department for Work and Pensions and a third database at the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) will hold administrative details related to the issue and use of the ID cards. 29 Jul 2008 16:59:49 GMT http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/05/12/do1202.xml Philip Johnston 1A22037B-90E0-4949-8629-2384242953A0 The Daily Telegraph A government-appointed panel of experts is warning that the new ID cards system will be open to fraud by the people running it. In a potentially damaging revelation, which undermines claims that the scheme will enhance national security, the group has concluded that it will be prone to corruption. A new report by the Independent Scheme Assurance Panel (Isap), set up to advise the government on the implementation of ID cards, states: 'Based on the likelihood that the scheme will aggregate a lot of valuable data, there is the risk that its trusted administrators will make improper use of this data.' It adds: 'The scheme will be subject to data errors and errors in decisions made.' The acknowledgements come as the government has admitted it is to contract out the taking of fingerprints and photographs of ID card applicants to the private sector to save money 29 Jul 2008 16:58:42 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/may/11/idcards.civilliberties Jamie Doward 73BD6473-B564-4605-A020-EB714789C674 The Observer The Government has set out, in the Identity Cards Act and in other documents, its plans to introduce the National Identity Scheme (NIS or “the Scheme") to the United Kingdom. The difficulties in doing this successfully are various, from the well-publicised technical areas of scale, complexity and innovation to the no less important areas of governance, security, realisation of benefits and achieving public trust in the result 29 Jul 2008 16:38:14 GMT http://www.ips.gov.uk/identity/downloads/ISAP_Annual_Report.pdf 377BD6BB-585F-4539-85E6-1909463E35DC IPS The ID card scheme lacks "robust" governance and design, according to government advisers of the project. Clear requirements for IT systems have yet to be set in stone, for the project which is now estimated to cost £4.7bn, according to the 'Independent Scheme Assurance Panel Report for 2007'. The news comes even though key IT suppliers were shortlisted last October. While flexibility on the project was important, it “does not excuse the programme from the need to adequately detail the requirements for ICT systems, processes and operations", the report warned. This was crucial for the programme to be delivered on time, it said. 29 Jul 2008 16:33:12 GMT http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/government-law/public-sector/news/index.cfm?RSS&newsid=8946 Leo King 8548B735-95D9-437D-8462-D3564689B34C Computer World The government's latest cost projections for its identity card scheme, which cut £975m from earlier estimates, have prompted fears that security will be compromised and costs transferred to citizens. The Home Office report, published on May 6, says the cut was due to cost revisions, the gradual roll-out of ID cards and tendering on the 'open market' for firms to record biometric data. The report follows an announcement by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in March setting out a timetable for implementation. Cards will initially be targeted at workers in 'sensitive roles' in 2009 then be made available to young people in 2010, before mass implementation linked to passports in 2011/12 29 Jul 2008 16:30:09 GMT http://www.cipfa.org.uk/publicfinance/news_details.cfm?News_id=32873 19799B9E-61C9-4260-80C9-800694B57C30 CIPFA The Home Office tentacle, the Identity and Passport Service, has published the latest 10 Year Cost guesstimate Report for their increasingly hated Identity Cards and centralised biometric database National Identity Register scheme. Identity Cards Scheme Cost Report May 2008 (.pdf) This is not a fair and accurate summary of the progress of the controversial scheme. Illegal delay in publishing the Report - yet again 29 Jul 2008 16:28:46 GMT http://p10.hostingprod.com/@spyblog.org.uk/blog/2008/05/identity-cards-scheme-10-year-cost-guesstimate-report-illegally-late-againle.html 33D8E3FE-FCB2-4863-8EE8-CF90E38114BF SpyBlog The prime minister should cut his losses and scrap the ID card scheme. It's unpopular, costly and the benefits are unproven One of the most difficult decisions for any prime minister is when to give up on a bad but long-cherished policy. Gordon Brown, whose greatest admirers would not include speedy decision-making among his dominant characteristics, is still agonising over the fate of that increasingly leaky vessel, the ID cards scheme. This week the Home Office published its latest estimate (pdf) of costs, which miraculously, against all previous experience of long-term IT projects, seem to be falling as time progresses. Of course, this is an illusion. Some of the extra money will fall on the coerced "customers". Other savings come from the leap of faith involved in assuming that greater private sector involvement entails lower costs. Anyone contemplating the London Underground will not be convinced. 29 Jul 2008 16:24:31 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/08/gordonscardismarked Damian Green FF0F21E3-8C81-4021-AEFC-042714EA5CEB The Guardian The Identity and Passport Service is still working out how it will avoid embarrassing and harmful losses of personal data from its Identity Cards Scheme even as it finalises tender negotiations with suppliers. The IPS had made inadequate provisions to mitigate the risks of data loss, it was told yesterday by the Independent Scheme Assurance Panel (ISAP). Having read the ISAP report before its publication, IPS chief executive James Hall had already written a response to its criticisms. He sent ISAP panel chairman Alan Hughes a letter this bank holiday Monday saying that the IPS had started trying to work out how he could prevent citizen's personal data being leaked from the ID Scheme. But it was still early days. 29 Jul 2008 16:20:51 GMT http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/07/gov-thinks-thinking-id-risks Mark Ballard A0815854-0E15-46D2-99F6-E32D3B9D3400 The Inquirer In asking whether the government has got the business case for ID cards right, we need to understand precisely what that business case is, writes Geraint Price of Information Security Group, Royal Holloway, University of London. Plenty has been written on how the government has changed its mind on the benefits provided by ID cards since the inception of the programme. If we look at the speech made by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to Demos in March giving an update on the identity card scheme, the justifications are broadly split into two areas. First, there are a number of preventative measures which have been previously touted as reasons for the scheme's implementation: illegal immigration, illegal working, benefit fraud, fighting terrorism. Second, and what seems to be particularly emphasised this time around, is the perceived "added convenience" to the citizen. 29 Jul 2008 16:19:23 GMT http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/04/14/230273/benefits-to-the-citizen-have-yet-to-be-proven.htm Geraint Price BD67B833-DE40-49D4-BE60-7BFDC595D6C2 Computer Weekly The High Court has quashed a ruling that a review of the ID card scheme should be published. Judge Stanley Burnton overturned the decision by the Information Tribunal that the ID card gateway reviews should be published. A new hearing of the Information Tribunal will now decide whether they should be published. The High Court decision means further delay while the Information Tribunal makes a new decision on publication of the reviews and the possibility of further setbacks if this new decision is again challenged. 29 Jul 2008 16:17:54 GMT http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39187863,00.htm?r=1 Nick Heath E5E57CE9-9782-4F5E-B8A2-113B571C985A Silicon Today's High Court Judgment regarding our FOIA request, made over 3 years and 4 months ago is totally unacceptable: High Court upholds OGC appeal against Information Tribunal and suppresses publication of the Home Office ID Cards Gateway Reviews, on grounds of "Parliamentary Privilege" Bad news for Transparency, Open Government,and Freedom of Information - the OGC has won their appeal in the High Court against the Information Tribunal, over the disclosure of the early Gateway Reviews of the Home Office's Identity Cards Programme. Having decided that Parliamentary Privilege was engaged, because the Information Tribunal had made a reference to a House of Commons Select Committee Report, referring to the desirability of publishing OGC Gateway Reviews, Mr. Justice Stanley Burnton then actually rejected all the other OGC grounds for appeal. 29 Jul 2008 16:17:09 GMT http://p10.hostingprod.com/@spyblog.org.uk/blog/2008/04/parliamentary-privilege-allows-ogc-to-win-appeal-against-having-to-disclose-gatewa.html E37619B9-18C8-4E01-9D73-3CDCBA56B2E3 SpyBlog A £1,000 reward has been posted for the fingerprints of Prime Minster Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, both of whom, claim perpetrators No2ID and Privacy International, are "wanted identity felons". In a campaign Wanted Poster the campaign groups claim that their plan to "steal the fingerprints of the entire British population... will be the identity theft crime of the century." Any fingerprints submitted should, say the groups, be lawfully obtained and provided with corroborating evidence; beer glasses, doorknobs or any object with a hard surface will however be accepted as entries. Should they manage to get hold of the pair's fingerprints, the two groups intend to make them publicly available, following the example of the Chaos Computer Club, which recently open sourced the German interior minister's fingerprints. 29 Jul 2008 16:15:37 GMT http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/07/brown_smith_fingerprints_wanted/ John Lettice E56FAC8D-A73A-4A96-ABC0-15C6D82C8172 The Register Security researchers have discovered a technique for detecting the presence and nationality of a nearby e-passport Most newly issued passports carry an embedded RFID containing digitally signed biometric information, reports The Register. Access to this chip is wireless, which introduces the possibility that an attacker might be able to access data on a person's passport without the owner knowing. Security precautions ought to prevent unauthorised access to data held on the latest generation of e-passports. But a trio of researchers from Lausitz University of Applied Sciences in Germany and Radboud University in The Netherlands have shown that it is trivial to detect remotely the presence of a passport and determine its nationality. 29 Jul 2008 16:14:32 GMT http://www.kablenet.com/kd.nsf/Frontpage/A59F69D61431D16F80257426003B8DB0?OpenDocument 70F05CC9-3F5D-420E-9C65-90954ED67742 Kable Spending on consultants by the Home Office has rocketed by 2,000 per cent under Labour to almost £150m a year. The total amount lavished on management consultants and other so-called experts over the past decade is £545m. One of the major reasons for the expenditure is trying to get the controversial ID cards project of the ground. The cash could otherwise have been spent putting 10,900 extra police on streets for a year. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, who unearthed the figures, said: "The Home Office has had its worst period in its 200-year history, stumbling from crisis to crisis. "Despite spending £150m last year on consultants - things are getting worse. 29 Jul 2008 16:13:19 GMT http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-558762/High-price-launching-ID-cards-consultants-cost-150m.html James Slack 213F9966-61E9-42E8-990D-37A8F339B3DF The Daily Mail In order to fake a fingerprint, one needs an original first. Latent fingerprints are nothing but fat and sweat on touched items. Thus to retrieve someone elses fingerprint (in this case the fingerprint you want to forge) one should rely on well tested forensic research methods. Which is what's to be explained here. 3 Apr 2008 16:00:42 GMT http://www.ccc.de/biometrie/fingerabdruck_kopieren.xml?language=en 6FF75410-0A18-4352-8F94-276CB2F25157 Chaos Computer Club In asking whether the government has got the business case for ID cards right, we need to understand precisely what that business case is. Plenty has been written on how the government has been changing its mind on what benefits the ID cards provide since the inception of the programme. If we look at the speech made by the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to Demos on the 6th of March 2008 giving an update on the identity card scheme, the justifications are broadly split into two areas. Firstly, there are a number of preventative measures which have been previously touted as reasons for the scheme's implementation: illegal immigration, illegal working, benefit fraud; fighting terrorism. Secondly, and what seems to be particularly emphasised this time round, is the perceived “added convenience" to the citizen. This change of tack would appear to tie in directly with the change of the roll-out plans by the government. In these revised plans only foreign nationals and those working in “sensitive" positions will, initially, be required to register. UK nationals will then be “encouraged" to register from 2010, and all new passport details entered on the National Identity Register from 2011/12. 3 Apr 2008 15:58:55 GMT http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/isg/2008/04/02/has-the-government-got-the-business-case-for-id-cards-right/ 9B3B8B3D-ED84-4342-93A8-F3DEFC421DEC IT Pro The government is to scrap its controversial £30 voluntary ID card system in favour of having every child born in the UK implanted at birth with a free radio frequency-based (RFID) identity marker. The plan is part of a £100bn 10-year project to put the UK at the forefront of post-internet information technology. It will lead to new grid-based network technology, new information processing and storage systems for "pervasive computing", and new massively parallel programming techniques, the government said. Children born to cabinet members from next year would be the first to receive the implants. These will guarantee their access to privileged government facilities and services. Announcing the scheme a government spokeswoman said it would return Britain to its rightful place as the world's IT technology leader, as it was during the Second World War. It had swapped many of the information theory and technology secrets developed by the code breakers at Bletchley Park for butter and guns from America, and this had let the US gain the lead, she said. 3 Apr 2008 15:57:38 GMT http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/04/01/230071/id-cards-scrapped-in-favour-of-rfid-implants-for-infants.htm Ian Grant CA283BA5-FFCD-4FFE-8B6A-381912020044 Computer Weekly Some day my prints will come A group of German hackers has threatened to publish Chancellor Angela Merkel's fingerprints. The move is part of a campaign against the German government's plan to stick biometric data in new passports. The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) has already published Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble's fingerprints in its magazine 3 Apr 2008 15:56:01 GMT http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/01/german-hackers-threaten-merkel Nick Farrell 4F6058CF-D1A7-4D57-BD40-969DF74221E4 The Inquirer Children in care should get school photos and passports, Ministers said yesterday, as they launched plans designed to give thousands of vulnerable children in care a happy and healthy childhood. Whether this will mean biometric ID cards be default for this vulnerable group remains to be seen. Biometric IDs for disabled children of those with special educational needs are often highly difficult to generate and use, for numerous complex reasons - and this area is highly sensitive. The ideas were outlined by Kevin Brennan and Beverley Hughes, as they joined the Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Children's Services to launch Care Matters: Time to Deliver, a practical guide for local partners on how to improve the lives of children in care. 3 Apr 2008 15:54:21 GMT http://rinf.com/alt-news/surveillance-big-brother/children-in-care-to-get-biometric-ids/2792/ 1E08C2B0-7AE3-43FE-94EE-92CF55EAFB03 RINF Only one in 10 adults trusts the government with their personal information, but family, banks and employers are more trusted than friends, according to a survey. The online survey of 1,048 UK adults, commissioned by Data Encryption Systems (DES), showed that three-quarters of Britons would provide contact details, date of birth, marital status, health information and children's details to anyone who asks, but only one in 10 adults trusted the government with their personal information, and even fewer (9%) would trust an online retailer. Even so, 41% said they favoured ID cards, 40% were against and 19% were undecided. Of those who were against or undecided about ID cards, 93% said it was because the government had a poor track record of looking after citizens' data. Almost as many (87%) thought the government lacked competence with personal data security, and 69% thought it had a poor regard for citizens' privacy. 3 Apr 2008 15:51:24 GMT http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/03/25/229967/90-of-people-dont-trust-government-with-personal-data.htm Ian Grant 8C9EBEAD-95DC-445C-B78D-D7D834B79644 Computer Weekly The growing use of biometrics to identify individuals is “insecure and in need of immediate attention," according to an IT systems company. Fujitsu Siemens said biometrics is increasingly being used in the business world to verify whether individuals really are who they say. By 2013, Fujitsu Siemens predicts biometric identity technology will be so widespread in the private sector that the number of people included would rival that of the proposed national ID schemes. Within five years, 95 percent of the UK population will be identifiable through biometrics and other means. But the tracking and monitoring of people could be a risk if security controls were not tightened up, the IT company said. From a security perspective, we have already seen that criminals can create a number of different personae for themselves and more methods of identification means more openings for them. Whether it's issued by a company or a government, once an individual can associate their biometric characteristics with an identity, they effectively own that identity," said David Pritchard, senior technology analyst. 3 Apr 2008 15:49:27 GMT http://rinf.com/alt-news/sicence-technology/firms-biometrics-records-can-be-hacked/2765/ 8CAD9F99-C3A1-4CEB-A1FB-E9C3A8A28CD5 Computerworld UK/RINF Repeated breaches of data protection laws by government departments raise huge question marks over plans for the national identity register required for ID cards and biometric passport, an influential parliamentary human rights watchdog has warned. MPs and peers on the Lords and Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights said repeated losses of personal information by departments had increased their concern, and announced they " intend to take a close interest in the government's detailed proposals for the national identity register as and when they emerge." In a hard-hitting report the committee insisted the privacy of personal data is guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights as well as the Data Protection Act. The report demands that detailed rules must in future be written in to all relevant primary legislation to “help ensure that data protection becomes a primary concern of managers and frontline staff in the public sector. 3 Apr 2008 15:48:00 GMT http://rinf.com/alt-news/surveillance-big-brother/mps-raise-fears-over-data-protection-for-id-register/2684/ EA6DCC9B-4F6F-4C4D-947A-9A7B407371CA Computing/RINF A critical report today should be the last nail in the coffin of the government's proposed ID cards, said Jenny Willott, Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central. The report by the Joint Committee on Human Rights, comes as details, released through the Freedom of Information Act revealed how many of those departments lack basic systems to comply with the Data Protection Act. A survey of 14 departments by the British Computer Society published today shower that none of them had statistics of how many errors were on their database, nor had a budget to correct them. 3 Apr 2008 15:47:02 GMT http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Community&F=1&id=13593 6373CA10-399F-4F84-A10F-4DD359094ECF News Wales Home Office slows ID card rollout as independent Treasury study recommends fast implementation The government's failure to take on board the recommendations of independent reports on the national identity card scheme may lead to faults and extra cost, warn experts. Last week, home secretary Jacqui Smith announced plans for a slower rollout of the £5.4bn ID cards programme, with the government retaining control of the national identity register. But in a Treasury-commissioned report, also released last week, former HBOS chief executive Sir James Crosby recommends a fundamentally different, consumer-led approach. Our identity belongs to us, no one else," said Crosby. The potential of any mass ID system such as ID cards lies in the extent to which it is created, by consumers for consumers." There are many reasons why the government may have ignored the Crosby report ­ which has been delayed by almost a year and was released through the Treasury web site ­ said Eric Woods, analyst at Ovum. 3 Apr 2008 15:45:27 GMT http://www.vnunet.com/computing/news/2211892/experts-wary-id-card-plan-3889137 Tom Young 52168D5A-E037-47B4-9E2D-1BA2C4FA72DB Computing Who are the most effective campaigners against ID cards? The government of course: According to MoD figures released in a Commons written answer, 4,433 ID cards disappeared in 2006 and a further 6,812 went missing last year. Tory defence spokesman Gerald Howarth said: “This is another example of the Government's scandalous disregard for the security of our citizens and yet another reason why the public has no confidence in the Government's ID card plans for the rest of the population. Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey said the figures were “just extraordinary" and made a mockery of the security procedures at military facilities. “This shows the inherent frailty of ID card schemes and is yet another proof that schemes, such as the ID card database, simply won't improve our security against terrorism," he said." 3 Apr 2008 15:44:13 GMT http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/1772 5B16FC6A-765D-4CCB-9920-57E5E45DCAAF pickledpolitics Support for the UK's national ID card programme continues to plummet, with one quarter of people saying they are strongly opposed to the scheme. According to an ICM poll, 25 percent of those surveyed thought it was a "very bad" idea - up from 17 percent in September last year. Opponents of the ID card scheme said the survey of just over 1,000 people, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, showed the government would be "unable to impose" the cards on the population. But, while 50 percent said the cards were a bad idea in the ICM poll, 47 percent of those questioned still thought they were a good idea. And 12 percent of that group thought they were a "very good" idea. Phil Booth, national co-ordinator with pressure group No2ID, said: "It shows that more people don't want ID cards than do, as is clearly the case across the population." 3 Apr 2008 15:42:48 GMT http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39292691,00.htm Nick Heath 9EE7A20D-0248-4ABD-A02E-0C2C807138FD silicon.com/ZDNet The pretence of oversight has been ripped aside by the Khan bugging affair: the security apparat has become a law unto itself The machine is out of control. Personal surveillance in Britain is so extensive that no democratic oversight is remotely plausible. Some 800 organisations, including the police, the revenue, local and central government, demanded (and almost always got) 253,000 intrusions on citizen privacy in the last recorded year, 2006. This is way beyond that of any other country in the free world. The Sadiq Khan affair has killed stone dead the thesis, beloved of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, that any accretion of power to the state is sustainable because ministers are in control. Whether this applies to phone tapping, bugging devices, ID cards, NHS records, childcare computer systems, video surveillance or detention without trial, it is simply a lie. Nobody can control this torrent of intrusion. Nobody can oversee a burst dam. 3 Apr 2008 15:41:26 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/feb/06/immigrationpolicy.politics Simon Jenkins 40299804-6B3D-4AF8-9C42-DF6CAB3FBC74 The Guardian The future of the UK's identity card scheme was thrown into further confusion last night after it emerged that the Home Office is looking to scrap one of its key components - a national register of fingerprints. Successive Home Office ministers have said fingerprinting will be a vital weapon in combating identity fraud and terrorism. But a confidential document produced by the Home Office Identity and Passport Service which has been obtained by The Observer states: 'We should test for each group we enrol whether the cost of fingerprints is justified by the use to which they will be put.' The implication that the scheme may prove too costly was immediately seized upon as proof of the government's waning enthusiasm. The use of iris scans has already been quietly dropped. 3 Apr 2008 15:40:25 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jan/27/uk.humanrights Jamie Doward 1127249F-6DBE-4B3B-9175-E8079844F114 The Observer Students will be "blackmailed" into holding identity cards in order to apply for student loans, the Tories have warned. According to Home Office documents leaked to the Conservative party last night, those applying for student loans will be forced to hold identity cards to get the funding from 2010. Anyone aged 16 or over will be expected to obtain a card - costing up to £100 - to open a bank account or apply for a student loan. The document says: "We should issue ID cards to young people to assist them as they open their first bank account, take out a student loan, etc." 3 Apr 2008 15:39:38 GMT http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2246086,00.html Anthea Lipsett 005E5F0E-F54A-4D95-A146-E86ED8F3A4BB The Guardian The rollout of compulsory national ID cards for British citizens looks likely to be delayed until after the next election, casting doubt over the future of the scheme. According to a strategy paper marked "restricted" and leaked to David Davis, the shadow home secretary, the government is planning to roll out the second phase of its ID card scheme in 2012, two years later than planned. A Home Office action plan on ID cards from two years ago set 2010 as a key milestone, when it would "issue significant volumes of ID cards alongside British passports". The setback will fuel the view among opposition politicians that the scandal surrounding the government's recent security breaches and loss of personal data could derail the ID card programme altogether. 3 Apr 2008 15:38:30 GMT http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39292351,00.htm 7D31FD19-2D36-4417-9F01-4832B6E7D86C Kablenet.com/ZDNet · PM stresses it will be for parliament to decide · He may be seeking wriggle room on issue, says Vaz Senior Labour MPs yesterday seized on comments by Gordon Brown to suggest that he intends to shelve a compulsory universal identity card scheme. They interpreted his remarks at prime minister's questions as a sign that he is cooling towards a compulsory scheme and may instead settle for a scheme that applies to foreign nationals. The prime minister's spokesman insisted that the government's policy and timetable on ID cards remained unchanged, after Brown had stressed that that it would be "for parliament to decide" on a compulsory scheme. MPs have detected a less enthusiastic tone in Brown's remarks on ID cards since the recent government data losses. 3 Apr 2008 15:36:46 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jan/10/uk.idcards Patrick Wintour and Will Woodward BD945B53-3FC7-4F0B-9EAD-FC6769D57A3D The Guardian David Cameron has tonight written to Gordon Brown demanding clarification over whether identity cards will be compulsory. The Conservative leader stepped up pressure on the prime minister following ill-tempered exchanges between the two during parliamentary question time. As the two leaders clashed on the issue, Brown appeared to contradict himself over whether ID cards would be compulsory. In a letter to the prime minister, David Cameron has asked him to clarify his position. He writes: "Following our exchange at prime minister's questions today, I am writing to ask for an important clarification. "Anyone watching will have been left in considerable doubt about whether you personally support compulsory ID cards and will recommend this approach to the House of Commons. 3 Apr 2008 15:35:42 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jan/09/houseofcommons.uk Deborah Summers 1B77A2EC-D337-41B7-8411-CD870360DD80 The Guardian As he looked back on a year that was going so right until it went horribly wrong, the prime minister yesterday received unsolicited advice from the new Liberal Democrat leader about how to ensure 2008 turns out more happily. Scrap ID cards, Nick Clegg urged. He objects to the cards on fundamental grounds, claiming he would rather go to jail than carry what he sees as a pernicious piece of plastic. Such talk may be grandstanding: it is doubtful that the plans would see refuseniks locked up. But it is not necessary to be a would-be outlaw or an extreme libertarian to appreciate that giving up ID cards is one new year resolution that Gordon Brown should make. As recently as autumn, the prime minister stated publicly, and with some credibility, that he could win an election on grounds of competence. A lot has happened since - the decision to duck that election, secret donations and financial chaos all helped change the mood. But Mr Brown's fall from grace was most savagely encapsulated by Mr Clegg's temporary predecessor, Vincent Cable, who in late November spoke of the PM's "remarkable transformation from Stalin to Mr Bean". The immediate issue shattering the sense of competence was the revenue's loss of the addresses and bank details of millions of parents. In the weeks that followed, it emerged the authorities had also mislaid personal information about 3 million learner drivers and hundreds of thousands of NHS patients. Against this backdrop ministers might be expected to develop an allergic reaction to new databases. Instead, they are pushing ahead with a national register linked to the cards - an unprecedentedly vast store of private information, with commensurate opportunities for blundering and fraud. 3 Apr 2008 15:34:39 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jan/01/leadersandreply.mainsection 28A95130-25CE-42C1-93F0-1324EAA2919C The Guardian I have never been convinced by Francis Bacon's aphorism: “knowledge itself is power". Presumably I am gaining more knowledge as I get older. Yet I feel more wimpish, less in charge of my own life or the lives of others, with each passing year. Are librarians powerful? Are academics? Are those minicab drivers or retired schoolteachers who always seem to do well on TV quiz shows? No, knowledge itself is not power. What helps people to acquire and retain power - whether in politics, business or personal relationships - are secrets. The powerful are paranoid about keeping their own. They are cunning about extracting other people's. And they are ruthless about using secrets thus acquired without scruple or hesitation. 3 Apr 2008 15:33:31 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/richard_morrison/article2955460.ece Richard Morrison A56DB429-2C28-4566-9AB8-AB05D1B979F7 The Times The Information Commissioner may have been publicising Friday 28th September as international Your Right To Know Day (.pdf), but another Anniverseray has now been reached: It is now over 1000 days since our original Freedom of Information Act request was submitted, initially to both the Office of Government Commerce and to the Home Office, for the to pre-Stage Zero and the actual Stage Zero Gateway review reports, on the Home Office's Identity Cards Programme. 3 Apr 2008 15:32:45 GMT http://p10.hostingprod.com/@spyblog.org.uk/blog/foia/2007/09/over_1000_days_since_the_foia_request_for_the_early_ogc_gateway_reviews_of_the.html C3CE8C96-F9E6-4D19-A27B-BB9A140B2FDF Spy Blog Gordon Brown's plans for identity cards were dealt a blow last night after leaked documents revealed the government plans to delay a national roll out of the scheme for at least two years. Despite repeated assurances that the controversial scheme is on track, Home Office documents show that the cards will only be issued to UK citizens from 2012 two years later than stated. The cards were due to be issued to people renewing their passports from 2010 under plans set out two years ago. They will not be compulsory for British citizens until 2015. The revelation from documents relating to the "delivery strategy" will prove embarrassing for the Prime Minister, whose support for them has been questioned by opponents. 23 Jan 2008 11:15:54 GMT http://news.scotsman.com/politics/39Twoyear-delay39--blow-for.3699661.jp Gerri Peev 6BD7D141-1AFB-41EA-A5DC-ED963A5056A1 The Scotsman Fresh doubts have arisen over the government's controversial identity cards programme after it emerged that Whitehall is considering a delay in the main roll-out to British citizens. The setback will fuel a growing belief among both Labour and opposition MPs that recent scandals surrounding the loss of personal data held by the government, continuing problems with IT programmes in Whitehall and doubts over the cost of the ID cards scheme itself are forcing Gordon Brown to delay or scrap it altogether. 23 Jan 2008 11:13:45 GMT http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1ceee8d4-c92b-11dc-9807-000077b07658.html Jimmy Burns 6A5C7810-14EB-48B1-BE6C-364F5B1E5547 FT.com Plans for a wider roll-out of identity cards to British nationals appear to have been delayed for two years. Foreign nationals will have ID cards this year and it was intended to introduce them in "significant volumes" for UK citizens from 2010. But documents leaked to the Tories suggest it has been put back to 2012. The Tories say the ID card scheme is "in the intensive care ward" but the government said the plan had always been to introduce them "incrementally". The timetable for ID cards to start being given to UK citizens over 16 has already slipped and the first ones are not expected to start being issued until next year. From January 2010 everyone getting a passport will have to get an identity card as well, according to existing plans. 23 Jan 2008 11:12:33 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7203740.stm 64DD45A8-EC5B-4E9E-B6C1-2AAF17A880C0 BBC The record of lost data of the past few years should be a warning to us all: our personal details are safe in nobody's hands Here's an easy question. What do the following have in common - people on housing benefit, people getting child benefit, people wanting to be RAF pilots or Royal Marines, people in hospital and people learning to drive? The answer is that they have all had their personal details lost through government incompetence. And here's another question. With the national database for ID cards looming, just how much do you trust the government to keep your identity details safe? 23 Jan 2008 11:17:03 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2244034,00.html Jackie Ashley 19F51736-812D-4B63-89F9-105B89F20C18 The Guardian · Stolen files not encrypted, Browne tells Commons · Whitehall issues staff ban on movement of data The Ministry of Defence is investigating the reported loss of 69 laptops and seven personal computers over the past year, officials revealed yesterday, as Whitehall staff were banned from removing laptops containing sensitive data from their offices. The extent of the lack of security surrounding MoD computers containing un-encrypted information emerged as Des Browne, the defence secretary, announced an inquiry into the latest theft: a laptop containing information on 600,000 people - recruits and those who had expressed an interest in joining the armed forces - which was stolen from a naval officer's car earlier this month. 23 Jan 2008 11:11:07 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,,2244739,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=11 Richard Norton-Taylor 7D76DC8E-A6A7-4FCF-A469-6142C3C0620D The Guardian Ten years' supply of applicants swiped from car Personal details of the 600,000 people who have applied to join the armed forces over the last ten years were stolen with an MoD laptop earlier this month, it was admitted late on Friday. The computer was stolen from the car of a junior naval officer, which was parked outside his house overnight in Edgbaston, Birmingham. It isn't yet clear whether or not the data was encrypted or the laptop password-protected, but the data is said to consist of two separate databases, one going back to the late 90s. Included are details of 150,000 serving personnel, and bank details for 3,500 of them. Aside from these, the databases include names and addresses, passport details and national insurance and NHS numbers for serving personnel and potential recruits. 23 Jan 2008 11:10:14 GMT http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/20/mod_recruits_laptop_theft/ John Lettice 06D29603-F042-4825-B4AA-DF6B213A3271 The Register Byrne's 'challenging targets' challenge belief Immigration minister Liam Byrne has concealed what looks like further ID card slippage and set himself a remarkably unchallenging series of immigration and border control targets in a "ten point plan" for 2008. Humorously described by the Home Office as "challenging", the plan consists largely of low targets, targets already achieved, and harder targets lobbed off into the middle distance. Check out the roadmap. Down at the bottom it tells us that Byrne won't start issuing immigrant ID cards until the second week in November (330 days, count them), won't start counting foreign nationals in and out of the country until the year end, and won't hit the target of processing 60 per cent of asylum claims within six months until the end of the year either. 23 Jan 2008 11:08:19 GMT http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/14/immigrant_id_slippage/ John Lettice 63F96385-8879-44C7-B7B4-EF32527526C8 The Register Americans seek international database to carry iris, palm and finger prints Senior British police officials are talking to the FBI about an international database to hunt for major criminals and terrorists. The US-initiated programme, "Server in the Sky", would take cooperation between the police forces way beyond the current faxing of fingerprints across the Atlantic. Allies in the "war against terror" - the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand - have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to plan their strategy. Biometric measurements, irises or palm prints as well as fingerprints, and other personal information are likely to be exchanged across the network. One section will feature the world's most wanted suspects. The database could hold details of millions of criminals and suspects. 23 Jan 2008 11:07:19 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanrights/story/0,,2241005,00.html Owen Bowcott 3CF4BD5B-6471-4E13-80F7-76F71A0186AC The Guardian · PM stresses it will be for parliament to decide · He may be seeking wriggle room on issue, says Vaz Senior Labour MPs yesterday seized on comments by Gordon Brown to suggest that he intends to shelve a compulsory universal identity card scheme. They interpreted his remarks at prime minister's questions as a sign that he is cooling towards a compulsory scheme and may instead settle for a scheme that applies to foreign nationals. The prime minister's spokesman insisted that the government's policy and timetable on ID cards remained unchanged, after Brown had stressed that that it would be "for parliament to decide" on a compulsory scheme. 23 Jan 2008 11:06:18 GMT http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2238201,00.html Patrick Wintour and Will Woodward 25EC4EE2-D421-4646-8D38-E70130104DB3 The Guardian Gordon Brown has not changed his mind on identity cards despite speculation he is preparing for a U-turn, a home office minister has told the BBC. Meg Hillier said the PM had "made it very clear" he supported the scheme. 23 Jan 2008 11:05:30 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7179238.stm 8E79B005-0BB3-4C59-A6BB-2F270DE782FE BBC David Cameron has tonight written to Gordon Brown demanding clarification over whether identity cards will be compulsory. The Conservative leader stepped up pressure on the prime minister following ill-tempered exchanges between the two during parliamentary question time. As the two leaders clashed on the issue, Brown appeared to contradict himself over whether ID cards would be compulsory. In a letter to the prime minister, David Cameron has asked him to clarify his position. 23 Jan 2008 11:04:28 GMT http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2237858,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=11 Deborah Summers D21556FC-4665-49EA-996D-7C3FF87FF8E0 The Guardian Along with several colleagues I have been worried by the government's emphasis over the last week on biometrics as a "solution" to data breaches such as those from HM Revenue & Customs. We wrote this morning to Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights to point out these problems as follows 23 Jan 2008 11:02:54 GMT http://dooooooom.blogspot.com/2007/11/biometrics-are-not-panacea-for-data.html Dr Ian Brown 38F4B02B-5A63-4ADD-8A0A-AA098D366A2D Blogzilla Several eminent academics who do actually know about information security, cryptography, software engineering etc.. have written a letter, published by one of the signatories Dr. Ian Brown on his Blogzilla blog. 23 Jan 2008 11:02:00 GMT http://p10.hostingprod.com/@spyblog.org.uk/blog/2007/11/biometrics_labour_government_are_still_clueless_about_the_technology.html 1D322DAA-9D5C-4DDF-82F2-BBA14DF5D9E9 SpyBlog Part 2 of the edited transcript of the Observer's interview with Gordon Brown 23 Jan 2008 11:00:29 GMT http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2236175,00.html John Mulholland and Nicholas Watt 7D2B6F00-24E6-48B9-A107-C4BE41230F92 The Observer Nick Clegg has pledged to campaign to "bring down the identity cards scheme" in the next 12 months. The new Liberal Democrat leader used his New Year message on Monday to say that his party would oppose "unwanted intrusions" in people's lives. 23 Jan 2008 10:55:47 GMT http://www.epolitix.com/EN/News/200712/4fe9a5b4-c2a4-489b-bf43-c7ac00c8508a.htm D5E865E7-6813-4DC3-80D1-A5E6202404A3 ePolitix As he looked back on a year that was going so right until it went horribly wrong, the prime minister yesterday received unsolicited advice from the new Liberal Democrat leader about how to ensure 2008 turns out more happily. Scrap ID cards, Nick Clegg urged. He objects to the cards on fundamental grounds, claiming he would rather go to jail than carry what he sees as a pernicious piece of plastic. Such talk may be grandstanding: it is doubtful that the plans would see refuseniks locked up. But it is not necessary to be a would-be outlaw or an extreme libertarian to appreciate that giving up ID cards is one new year resolution that Gordon Brown should make. 23 Jan 2008 10:55:03 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2233786,00.html 49224CF3-9A12-4F91-A53E-8CC2E64BE848 The Guardian The data crisis has taken a new twist, as nine NHS trusts admitted losing personal information of patients. Hundreds of thousands of patients could be affected, according to a newspaper report. The news comes in the wake of the loss of 25 million child benefit claimants' details on two discs belonging to HM Revenue and Customs, as well as three million motorists' details in Iowa. The Department of Health says that patients have been informed and there is no evidence that sensitive data has fallen in to the wrong hands. While the DoH has said that the data losses were being dealt with individually by the relevant trusts and that it therefore did not have details of how many patients' records were lost, one trust - City and Hackney Primary Care Trust, in east London - has reportedly lost the details of 160,000 children, according to a story in the Sunday Mirror. 23 Jan 2008 10:50:56 GMT http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/23/ndata223.xml Tom Chivers 543363B2-8931-4B72-A32E-753F2269544F The Daily Telegraph Newly elected Liberal Democrat party leader makes a few comments about the proposed ID scheme Nick Clegg MP has vowed to face court proceedings rather than register for an ID card if the government presses ahead with plans to make them compulsory. If he were elected leader of the party he would urge his fellow MPs not to co-operate and ask Liberal Democrat controlled councils to ensure no local public services require an identity card. 23 Jan 2008 10:50:03 GMT http://rinf.com/alt-news/surveillance-big-brother/video-ill-go-to-court-rather-than-have-an-id-card/2064/ E3041888-D070-4DC5-8D68-4FE4D7BE6BBC RINF.com The records of more than three million British learner drivers have gone missing from a “secure facility" in the US, an embarrassed Government admitted last night. Labour's dismal autumn hit another low as, minutes after ministers admitted that they still did not know the whereabouts of two discs holding sensitive information on 25 million people, they were forced to confess they had lost the details of all candidates for the driving theory test between 2004 and 2007. 23 Jan 2008 10:49:07 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3065774.ece Philip Webster A226AD9F-1272-4625-B42B-5D48912D0428 The Times Liberty and the state: Ministers think good intentions are enough when it comes to civil liberties - but they're wrong. A couple of weeks ago I was discussing the government's plans to increase detention without trial with a former Labour minister. He had supported Blair's attempt to take the limit to 90 days. Politely, I suggested that if he had been so convinced of the case, without any strong arguments being made to support it, that that must have been because he had access to security information that we, the public, hadn't seen. "No, not really," he said, breezily. But, he asserted, it was just logical to suppose that there would eventually be a case where the police would need more time for their investigations, and it would be better to have the powers on the statute book before such time rather than after. 23 Jan 2008 10:47:02 GMT http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jenni_russell/2007/12/a_couple_of_weeks_ago.html Jenni Russell 6AFD2FA5-371E-475E-B438-6EE33493B2F6 The Guardian Should I go to jail rather than carry a hated identity card - and will I be able to get myself locked up, even if I try? Those questions have been following me around ever since the “Datagate" scandal broke, with the loss of two CDs bearing our child benefits records. Until this extraordinary blunder, we were all sleepwalking into the looming disaster of ID cards and the scary database that will accompany them. The potential exposure of half the nation to fraudsters made everyone sit up and realise the far greater risk of piling far more detailed information onto the National Identity Register (NIR). 23 Jan 2008 10:44:08 GMT http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/views/liverpool-columnists/columns/2007/12/12/a-crisis-of-identity-64375-20236801/ Rob Merrick ED846F34-A10B-49C9-9EC0-8F51E5D036F9 Liverpool Daily Post What do fighter jets, ID cards, the sale of a department of the Ministry of Defence and measles have in common? The answer is they have all been involved in scandalously poorly run, and in one case quite possibly corrupt, government deals and schemes. And while they may seem to have nothing to do with UK democracy, the level of trust the public has in government, and its' competence, certainly does. Given that this is the government who struggle to send computer discs through the mail, it is no surprise that public trust ebbs by the day. 23 Jan 2008 10:42:20 GMT http://www.ukwatch.net/article/is_technocracy_dead Ben Rymer 216DA732-B9B6-47BC-BD36-8F9542195A48 Unlock Democracy/UK Watch There needs to be serious debate about the government's controversial ID cards scheme or else it should be scrapped, according to an influential thinktank. A report from Demos stated that meaningful engagement with the public about how the technology should work must be a priority if the ID cards scheme is to go ahead. "There needs to be a serious, renewed debate about the identity cards scheme, with the kind of engagement that should have happened at the start of the process. Otherwise, the scheme should be dropped," the Demos report FYI: The new politics of personal information stated. 23 Jan 2008 10:41:24 GMT http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39291403,00.htm Steve Ranger 90E3D713-2014-4E1D-B001-FA1F3ED201D5 zdnet Sir, Meg Hillier's defence of the ID card scheme (Letters, November 29) omits crucial information. She mentions that the ID card database will hold core identity information and will not be an amalgam of all existing government data. This is true but the amount of information stored about us could grow exponentially without our necessarily knowing the plan would be to track the occasions our identity is checked on the database, giving the government access to our movements. Ms Hillier also states that the use of biometrics will secure our unique identity. This is wrong. The scheme will now use fingerprints and facial scans as the main biometric identifiers (iris scans having been dropped because of their expense) and the claim of uniqueness cannot be substantiated. 23 Jan 2008 10:40:22 GMT http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/90c08000-a2d5-11dc-81c4-0000779fd2ac.html Lynne Jones MP C3A01557-DF3C-488B-A53A-B61B38282B60 FT.com It is "truly bizarre" the loss of 25 million people's personal records has not made the government reconsider the practicalities of a nationwide identity database, the Conservative leader said today. In their weekly Commons clash, David Cameron asked Gordon Brown if the revelation Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) had compromised the security of millions of people had made him stop and think about the safety of the national ID card scheme. Mr Brown insisted ID cards would help make people feel more confident about their identity, citing the alleged benefits of biometric checks on identity. 23 Jan 2008 10:39:10 GMT http://www.politics.co.uk/News/opinion-former-index/economy-and-finance/data-loss-casts-doubt-on-id-card-plan-$481879.htm C952065C-9AEA-4EBD-BEC7-25CDF1BE200E Politics.co.uk The Government must urgently develop a better way of holding and using people's personal information, an influential report is to say. Research by the think-tank Demos warns that people are losing control of their personal data and calls on the Government to act to ensure greater protection. Its report, which is based on nine months of research, also calls for Labour's ID cards policy to be scrapped unless the public are properly consulted. 23 Jan 2008 10:38:13 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-7134390,00.html Press Association F4721EF7-88A1-4367-A3B8-BFDADAA0FFA4 The Guardian Britain's identity card scheme must be scrapped unless the public is properly consulted, a think tank-will say today. People are losing control of their personal data and the Government should act to ensure greater protection, the group warned. The recommendations by independent research institute, Demos, come weeks after HM Revenue and Customs lost a CD containing the data of 25 million Britons. 23 Jan 2008 10:36:50 GMT http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=500292&in_page_id=1770&ito=newsnow 5658ACC3-7D90-412E-8C72-780604AAB157 The Daily Mail If your bank lost your address through carelessness and penny-pinching, would you stay with them? I wouldn't. I've removed myself from mobile phone networks, email providers, academic mailing lists and online shops, all because I thought it was possible they were being a little careless with my contact details. Now imagine that a company that you knew had just lost the details of 25 million of its customers, including some who are at risk of violence because of something they'd done for you in the past, was setting up a scheme to bring all of your biometric details together every valuable confidential piece of information that identifies you as you and was going to charge you £100 to join. Want to sign up? No, me neither. 23 Jan 2008 10:35:12 GMT http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/iandouglas/dec2007/id-security.htm Ian Douglas 96FC34E0-0B0D-4AA0-AFCA-AE1D54A8D7C2 The Daily Telegraph The government needs to review the scale of its plans for identity cards in the wake of the release of 25 million names and addresses on government child benefit records, the information commissioner, Richard Thomas, told the justice select committee yesterday. He claimed the government remained confused about the role of identity cards, and accused ministers of putting too much faith in the value of information sharing. Thomas said: "Any massive collection of information like the identity card carries risk ... We still have some uncertainties about what the primary purpose of the identity card is ... Is it to improve policing, to fight terrorism, to improve public services, to avoid identity theft? I think there is a lot of thinking still to be done on its primary purpose." 5 Dec 2007 10:24:15 GMT http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2222072,00.html Patrick Wintour C69EE700-329B-4223-8CE9-FD373DAE29E7 The Guardian Time to cut off IPS' air supply... No2ID has launched a new campaign of civil disobedience* against ID cards, as a new poll shows that for the first time, opponents of the cards outnumber supporters. The poll - carried out by YouGov for the Daily Telegraph, shows 48 per cent against versus 43 per cent for. The poll turnaround bears out a long-standing prediction by Simon Davies of Privacy International, who for some years has insisted that UK public opinion on ID cards would follow the same pattern as was the case in Australia. There, early support turned into hostility as the public learned more and more about the cards. Here, a 2003 YouGov poll showed 78 per cent for and 15 per cent against, with this falling to 45 per cent pro and 42 per cent against shortly after the July 2005 bombings. Subsequent movement likely has something to do with the Government's less-than-glorious recent record of protecting ID data, and as there seems a never-ending supply of bad news in that area, the numbers can surely only get worse for the Government. 5 Dec 2007 10:23:20 GMT http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/03/no2id_non_coop_pledge/ John Lettice A797926F-61A1-4BE8-A585-C9B354849259 The Register More people now oppose Labour's proposed ID cards than support them, a poll for The Daily Telegraph has found. Just 43 per cent of those questioned said they favoured the introduction of a national identity scheme compared with 48 per cent who were against. It is the first time YouGov has found more against than in favour. When the ID scheme was first proposed by the Government in 2003, YouGov found 78 per cent supported it and just 15 per cent were opposed. Since then, there has been a gradual erosion in support for ID cards and the recent loss of the country's entire child benefit records on two CDs seems to have tipped the balance. Yesterday, it emerged that the Department of Work and Pensions let a contractor keep two discs with thousands of benefit claimants' details for more than a year. 5 Dec 2007 10:16:09 GMT http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/03/nidcards103.xml#form Philip Johnston D579FF53-B402-4910-8749-97C71B4C2057 The Daily Telegraph Security breaches that are allowing the financial details of tens of thousands of Britons to be sold on the internet are to be investigated by the country's information watchdog. Without paying a single penny, The Times downloaded banking information belonging to 32 people, including a High Court deputy judge and a managing director. The private account numbers, PINs and security codes were offered as tasters by illegal hacking sites in the hope that purchases would follow. 5 Dec 2007 10:15:19 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2988471.ece Alexi Mostrous and Dominic Kennedy 8378B51C-C4A2-4107-BB66-553C707C1F8A The Times The Information Commissioners' in-tray got a little bigger today as it confirmed it would be investigating a series of ID trading sites unearthed by journalists. The Times screamed today that "the financial details of tens of thousands of Britons" were being sold on the internet. The paper detailed how it had been able to download banking information for 32 people, including account numbers, PINS, and security codes, "without spending a single penny". The data, including that of a deputy judge, was apparently offered as a free taster by the ID traders. It's no secret that personal details are being traded online, although the fact that criminals are now offering free samples is a new wrinkle. 5 Dec 2007 10:14:18 GMT http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/03/id_trading/ Joe Fay 863D622D-44E4-461E-9705-B604F6017CE7 The Register The suggestion by James Hall that Project Stork (Letters, November 29) has nothing to do with the national identity scheme is risible. The roadmap for the project was presented on June 13 at this year's European e-identity conference in Paris. Frank Leyman, manager for international relations at FEDICT (the Belgian public service responsible for e-government), described the project thus: "Implementation of an EU-wide interoperable system for recognition of electronic identification and authentication that will enable businesses, citizens and government employees to use their national electronic identities in any member state." 5 Dec 2007 10:12:51 GMT http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/letters/display.var.1870534.0.0.php Geraint Bevan DAE6FE31-6EAF-402F-AE80-53CF3FE9EC81 The Herald A growing scandal over the government's loss of the personal data of 25 million British people last week could carry unexpected consequences, according to a poll by Populus published in The Times. 55 per cent of respondents think the incident proves the government would be unable to handle the introduction of smart identification cards and should abandon plans to do so. 5 Dec 2007 10:11:20 GMT http://rinf.com/alt-news/surveillance-big-brother/britons-reject-id-cards-after-missing-data-scandal/1873/ Angus Reid 8BEB68F7-4C7D-4749-9C0B-86D9C6CB56DA RNIF/Global Monitor ID cards, government procedure and politicians' capability with technology are all called into question in House of Commons debate. The identity card scheme, departmental processes and politicians truthfulness and ability to handle technology were all under discussion at a lengthy debate about data security among MPs at the House of Commons yesterday. The debate was sparked by the massive data leak from HM Revenue and Customs, admitted by the government last week in a speech to the commons by Chancellor Alistair Darling. 5 Dec 2007 10:10:13 GMT http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/142902/politicians-honesty-ability-questioned-in-data-debate.html Nicole Kobie 2CA6AE98-B473-450B-8824-00F30CAB2E54 IT Pro News emerged yesterday of a mysterious international ID card plan, described by the Tories as "a European-wide identity card project called Project Stork". The Conservatives suggested in Parliament that Stork was a huge Europe-wide extension to the planned UK National ID card with its associated databases and biometrics. "How," asked the shadow Home Sec David Davis, did the government intend to "prevent a repetition of the disaster of the past few weeks when sensitive personal data are held not by one Government but by 27?" The actual Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, seemed a trifle puzzled about what exactly Stork might be 5 Dec 2007 10:09:07 GMT http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/28/stork_id_fracas/ Lewis Page 94279DCA-CC36-47B9-87A8-1DDCA660FBC2 The Register PDF - Towards a Pan-European eID identification system 5 Dec 2007 10:07:33 GMT http://www.enisa.europa.eu/doc/pdf/Workshop/June2007/Presentations/auth_LeymanFrank_%20STORK%2013062007.pdf 22CEECE1-CEE1-4DFC-A686-72C5E0DF3B77 The government's controversial plans for ID cards will be reviewed in the light of the loss of 25 million people's personal data. Data protection minister Michael Wills told MPs and Lords it was inevitable the government would have to review plans for a nationwide identity database. He was reporting to the parliamentary committee on human rights a week after it emerged HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has lost two computer discs containing personal information of child benefit claimants. Mr Wills told the committee: "We are going to obviously have to look at the national identity register in the light of all this. "We are going to have to learn the lessons. Everything will have to be scrutinised and then we will assess it again." However, he denied the data breach meant the government would be forced to abandon the ID card scheme, which is opposed by both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. 5 Dec 2007 10:06:41 GMT http://www.politics.co.uk/News/opinion-former-index/legal-and-constitutional/govt-look-again-at-id-cards-in-wake-hmrc-loss-$482139.htm 2F64AE3C-7863-40C0-8D97-D874F427781E Politics.co.uk A Conservative MP has claimed the government's ID cards strategy will not protect the UK from terrorists Speaking in the Commons on 26 November 2007, Tory MP Patrick Mercer said that those who were resident in the country for three months or less would not be required to carry an identity card. While interrogating borders and immigration minister Liam Byrne, Mercer said: "A cursory understanding of the core Al Qaeda group makes it quite clear that its visits to countries such as ours will last a lot less than three months. Does that not drive a coach and horses through the whole concept of ID cards?" 5 Dec 2007 10:05:35 GMT http://www.kablenet.com/kd.nsf/Frontpage/973C2D0AFD7E10A8802573A000421040?OpenDocument 00F0DB57-D61E-4234-ACC5-BF6C45924C9C kablenet I have never been convinced by Francis Bacon's aphorism: “knowledge itself is power". Presumably I am gaining more knowledge as I get older. Yet I feel more wimpish, less in charge of my own life or the lives of others, with each passing year. Are librarians powerful? Are academics? Are those minicab drivers or retired schoolteachers who always seem to do well on TV quiz shows? No, knowledge itself is not power. What helps people to acquire and retain power - whether in politics, business or personal relationships - are secrets. The powerful are paranoid about keeping their own. They are cunning about extracting other people's. And they are ruthless about using secrets thus acquired without scruple or hesitation. 5 Dec 2007 10:04:48 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/richard_morrison/article2955460.ece Richard Morrison 2F51E6F0-5714-4935-9798-F7E6EE92B598 The Times The Government was accused of a fresh security blunder yesterday after Britain's top taxman sent millions of parents an apology letter containing sensitive personal data. Anti-fraud experts and police urged people to destroy the letters, which contain each claimants' name, address, national insurance and child benefit numbers. Criminals use such information to open bank accounts, claim benefits and apply for passports. Nigel Evans MP, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Identity Fraud, said that the taxman's latest error would come like an early Christmas present to conmen. 5 Dec 2007 09:36:04 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2958046.ece?EMC-Bltn=LNW9I4 Dominic Kennedy 602367D1-F068-4CFD-BD2D-201172184742 The Times Last week's loss of confidential child benefit records has been a wake-up call to 25 million people about the reality of the government's handling of our personal information. But few realise the extent of what lies ahead. The Identity Cards Act, which slipped, barely noted, on to the statute books in 2006, is the jewel in the crown of a wholesale and well-advanced government commitment to "share" data about each of us between departments on an unprecedented scale. Already some 265 government departments are data-sharing. Electronic identity management in the UK is deeply entrenched in government policy, and yet no one can guarantee that such a data-sharing system can be secure. All we can do is hand over our information, cross our fingers, and hope that it won't happen to us. 5 Dec 2007 09:34:55 GMT http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/comment/0,,2217557,00.html Christina Zaba 2B493406-8FA2-4C9F-A7F6-C015EEC1AB7F The Guardian The proposed national identity register - the heart of the Government's identity card scheme is to be reassessed in light of the recent data loss at HM Revenue & Customs. Michael Wills, the data protection minister, said that the loss of CDs containing the details of 25 million people would have implications for the register. We are going to have to learn the lessons, he told the joint Lords and Commons human rights committee. Everything will have to be scrutinised and then we will assess it again. 5 Dec 2007 09:33:43 GMT http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2951709.ece Richard Ford 94496A6F-8A11-479D-8C29-524BD5EB87E3 The Times The Conservative leader has warned of the dangers to data security posed by the national identity card scheme David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, called on prime minister Gordon Brown to re-think his plans for a national identity register, following the "appalling blunder" which led to the huge loss of child benefit data from HM Revenue and Customs. He said that the public "will find it truly bizarre - they will find it weird - that the prime minister does not stop and think about the dangers of a National Identity Register" 5 Dec 2007 09:32:45 GMT http://www.kablenet.com/kd.nsf/Frontpage/4B2F6469691D27628025739B003D5EF0?OpenDocument A5E219EE-D7FA-496D-AB2F-E80A7A67B06B kablenet A biometric security firm is pitching a national identity scheme designed to allay fears caused by the government holding and trying to manage a national identity base. The biometric smartcard system proposed by UK Biometrics is being promoted as the government tries to address the outcry caused by HMRC losing the child benefit records of 25m people. The plan would be to store everybody's biometric data on any smart card chip, currently embedded in credit cards. For those people who do not carry credit cards, a dedicated smart card would cost about £5 - much cheaper than the estimated cost of the current national identity card scheme, said the firm When required by police or authorities to positively identify themselves, the card holder would slot their smart card into a hand-held biometric scanner, place their fingertip onto the reader and have their identity confirmed. 5 Dec 2007 09:30:36 GMT http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2007/11/26/228309/government-offered-alternative-national-id-scheme-that-doesnt-require-national.htm Antony Savvas DF6437FE-90B8-4293-B18B-61DBE5AD38C4 Computer Weekly Following the loss of 25m records ID card alternatives are coming to the fore Since HMRC lost 25 million records, public trust in the government's introduction of ID cards is fading and alternative schemes are growing in appeal. UK Biometrics Ltd has proposed a scheme where an individual's biometric data would be stored on their smart card chips in their credit cards, and there would be no need for a centralised national identity database. When required by police or authorities to positively identify themselves the card holder would slot their smart card into a hand held biometric scanner, place their fingertip onto the reader and have their identity confirmed," said the firm. The solution would help eliminate fraud as well as giving the ownership of data to the individual. 5 Dec 2007 08:56:21 GMT http://www.itweek.co.uk/itweek/news/2204288/alternatives-id-cards-put Rosalie Marshall F2DE0ED2-79FE-442C-9EC0-05347AD875CD IT Week Dis-information systems management Comment: When it comes to talking about last week's data loss by the HMRC, I was told not to use precious words outlining my feelings of rage and bafflement that a government body can be so cavalier with so much data because, presumably, we all feel the same. So I will simply note, for the record, that my gob has been totally smacked by this debacle. What I will do is to take a look at the technical elements of this case from the database/data perspective. 4 Dec 2007 20:18:56 GMT http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/25/tech_view_of_data_blunder/ Mark Whitehorn 801D5BCC-60B7-49BF-803E-516B9C0667E6 The Register Ministers will quickly lose their shame over the missing 25 million files and continue to stockpile our most personal secrets There's no time to crow over the government's loss of 25 million people's details; no time to rejoice at the obvious mortification of Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, his sidekick, Andy Burnham, Jacqui Smith and Harriet Harman. These people will not be deterred by the calamity of last week. They are shameless. In a month or two they will bounce back. The ID card scheme will be relaunched and Jacqui Smith will continue with her plans to demand 53 pieces of information from people before they travel abroad. The Children's Index, the Children's Assessment Framework, the National Health database, the ever-expanding police DNA database will all continue to scoop up information. Why? Because the control of the masses is coded in the deepest part of Labour's being. 4 Dec 2007 20:17:23 GMT http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2216768,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=19 Henry Porter C407F62D-3E04-4A72-B9BD-B8D756614508 The Observer Sometimes just throwing a few long words about can make people think you know what you're talking about. Words like "biometric". When Alistair Darling was asked if the government will ditch ID cards in the light of this week's data cock-up, he replied: "The key thing about identity cards is, of course, that information is protected by personal biometric information. The problem at present is that, because we do not have that protection, information is much more vulnerable than it should be." Yes, that's the problem. We need biometric identification. Fingerprints. Iris scans. Gordon Brown says so too: "What we must ensure is that identity fraud is avoided, and the way to avoid identity fraud is to say that for passport information we will have the biometric support that is necessary." Tsutomu Matsumoto is a Japanese mathematician, a cryptographer who works on security, and he decided to see if he could fool the machines which identify you by your fingerprint. This home science project costs about £20. Take a finger and make a cast with the moulding plastic sold in hobby shops. Then pour some liquid gelatin (ordinary food gelatin) into that mould and let it harden. Stick this over your finger pad: it fools fingerprint detectors about 80% of the time. The joy is, once you've fooled the machine, your fake fingerprint is made of the same stuff as fruit pastilles, so you can simply eat the evidence. 4 Dec 2007 20:15:54 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/nov/24/idcards.homeaffairs Ben Goldacre 93DD2639-70E6-4724-BF2C-B9C1E1CF1C9A The Guardian Gordon Brown has told us a national identity card scheme would make people feel safer. The reverse is true. The catastrophic loss of the personal and financial details of 25m people by HM Revenue & Customs has made people uneasy about handing yet more data to the government. The prime minister should think again: the gross mishandling of child-benefit data should be the final nail in the coffin of this deeply flawed scheme. After a protracted battle in parliament, a bill giving the government powers to issue ID cards received royal assent last year. Contracts for the scheme went out to tender in the summer and the first cards will be issued to UK residents in 2009. Registration for the scheme will be compulsory. But people will not, for now, be required to carry the cards. 4 Dec 2007 20:15:17 GMT http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f403aed6-99f6-11dc-ad70-0000779fd2ac,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Ff403aed6-99f6-11dc-ad70-0000779fd2ac.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fdel.icio.us%2Frandomattention%2FID&nclick_check=1 36F459CC-9458-49F9-97DA-55CE89BE65C5 FT A big week for news, this, as the story breaks that the Government has just lost detailed records belonging to half the UK's population. Security cannot help but be one of the recurring themes here and in most places in the IT industry. It was once a bolt-on but now it's at the stage where it's embedded in everything the industry does. Without that vital security tick on the checklist, vendors can't sell it. Things clearly move differently in Government. Or do they? It's hard to tell from the outside as the Government's mechanisms are shrouded in secrecy -- even though it's our data that its civil servants are handling. What seems to have happened is that a relatively junior individual needed to transport the entire child benefit database from Washington in the north-east to London. He or she burned the database onto two CDs, hired TNT to send a bike and shipped it to the smoke. Only it didn't arrive. 4 Dec 2007 20:13:29 GMT http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/3662 Manek Dubash 2A747302-DC13-4847-9BC3-BB784E0D4045 newswireless.net The government has defended security measures for its £5.6bn ID cards scheme in the wake of the data loss crisis at HM Revenue and Customs. HMRC admitted that records of 25 million people - including bank details, addresses and other confidential information - were on computer disks lost in transit to the National Audit Office. The loss - Britain's biggest security breach - was seized upon by opponents of the ID card scheme. They said the government must think again about the ID card programme and its underlying national identity register in the light of the HMRC debacle. 4 Dec 2007 20:12:05 GMT http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/government-law/public-sector/news/index.cfm?newsid=6328 Tash Shifrin 282E72EA-9F39-4102-A0B0-4CF4C0A7445A Computer World UK The HMRC incident may harm the ID cards proposals because the government's perceived inability to safeguard sensitive data is likely to further damage confidence in the already controversial scheme. Shadow chancellor George Osborne was quick to use the incident to fuel opposition to the project. “Does [Alistair Darling] agree that today must mark the final blow to the government's ambition to create a national ID card? They simply cannot be trusted with people's personal information, he said. 4 Dec 2007 20:11:00 GMT http://www.vnunet.com/itweek/news/2204127/hmrc-scandal-hit-id-card-plans David Neal 854D0D59-5DDE-492A-999C-948E14480920 IT Week The creation of a giant register of every card-carrying member of the British public was always one of the more controversial elements of the ID cards proposal. The missing data crisis could not have provided a more spectacular example of what might happen if such databases are not secure. It has sparked widespread fears over the security of personal information and raised the inevitable demands for the entire ID card scheme to be abandoned - with signs the government may now be having second thoughts. 4 Dec 2007 20:10:08 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7107617.stm Nick Assinder D0D14696-4A42-4571-B5B2-07C7CC8CA978 BBC HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officials were warned to ensure CDs containing benefit details of 25 million people were delivered "as safely as possible". The warning from a National Audit Office (NAO) official was sent 16 days before the information went missing. It is one of a string of e-mails released by ministers as they seek to prove top officials did not sanction the sending of sensitive data. Another e-mail reveals concerns about the cost of removing bank details. 4 Dec 2007 20:09:00 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7106987.stm 4B0A30EB-F482-4FA9-9AA6-7DA2A291A00F BBC Gordon Brown got it partly right when he faced the Commons yesterday to explain the loss of 25 million child benefit records. He was suitably contrite over the way his Government had, in David Cameron's words, "failed in its first duty - to protect the public". The Prime Minister made no attempt to play down the scale of the fiasco and revealed that he had asked the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, to lead a review of the way every Whitehall department handles sensitive data. It is a pity the Prime Minister then felt the need to indulge in partisan politicking by quoting dusty Tory proposals to cut even more jobs at HM Revenue and Customs. He misjudged the mood of both the House and the country. Away from the Commons knockabout, what remains most worrying is the Government's refusal to accept that this blunder should sound the knell for ill-begotten plans for compulsory ID cards. 22 Nov 2007 13:44:31 GMT http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/11/22/dl2201.xml 67958C98-FB09-4652-A249-70484587E263 The Daily Telegraph At least two more discs containing data that could put people at risk of ID fraud have been lost by Revenue and Customs, it has been revealed. Staff at the tax offices in Washington, Tyne and Wear, said they sent more two unencrypted discs to London but