The introduction of identity cards in the UK need not be
indicative of a Big Brother state, says Simon Moores. It may just
be another massive and expensive government project about to go
wrong.
If a leaked government document is to be believed, the
arrival of national identity cards is just around the
corner.
I have been in two minds about the value of such a card for a
long time now. There is that natural suspicion of government
motives, after all, as a society we trust our own government less
than any of our European neighbours and mostly for good reason.
Can we trust them to use a comprehensive citizens' database in a
way that protects our dwindling civil rights, or will such
information, as the privacy lobby fears, be used as one more tool
in an inevitable march towards a more tightly controlled
society?
That’s one argument and it’s not one that appears to worry most
of the population. What does worry people is that there are a third
more National Insurance numbers in circulation than there should be
and that there is no longer any form of identification, which even
partly guarantees that you happen to be John Smith and not Osama
Bin Laden.
The technologists quite correctly point out that any identity
card is only as good as the information given by a trusted third
party that validates the owner of the card, so it remains to be
seen how government is going to tackle this problem.
After all, a National Insurance number, a driving licence and a
passport are less reliable than a letter from your mother, so
tackling the question of identity in 21st century Britain presents
a real problem.
When I attended the Digital Identity Forum in London at the end
of last year, the audience, which represented banks, suppliers and
government, were struggling to arrive at a useful solution to the
identity dilemma.
After all, as one presentation from an inner London council
illustrated, not everyone today has a "Christian name", a middle
name, and a surname. A Mr Mohammed Abdullah Osama could appear as
any combination of these names on a local authority database and
there have been numerous examples of families being given more than
one home as a consequence of errors creeping into the system.
There is another reason why identity cards have taken so long to
arrive. Government is also faced with a dilemma of its own. If
everyone is issued with an identity card or a stronger form of
identity to cross-check against National Insurance numbers, then it
becomes much simpler, over time, to determine how many people are
present in this country illegally. This is a statistic that they
would rather not face.
When they appear, these cards will, apparently, cost each of us
£40 and it won’t be long before there’s a roaring trade in
counterfeiting the new gold standard of British identity. Let’s be
honest, investigative reporting has demonstrated that the passport,
driving licence and National Insurance system are hopelessly
compromised, so why should this be any different?
While the Home Office appears to be convinced by the technology
at its disposal, I’m not convinced by the Home Office, and I very
much doubt that many of our readers are either.
People may worry about the limited information on an identity
card being made freely available across government departments, but
Mr Average Citizen has nothing to worry about and the police will
have a more efficient means of checking the identity of fans before
a Millwall game.
As for anything more sophisticated, we have to remember that
this will be a massive and expensive government IT project and I
for one, can’t think of a single massive and expensive government
IT project and especially one involving security of any kind, that
has worked without being dogged by massive and expensive failure.
Over to you then, Mr Blunkett.
What do you think?
Is David Blunkett's ID card scheme doomed to failure?
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Setting the world to rights with the collected thoughts and
opinions of leading industry analystDr Simon
Mooresof Zentelligence.
Acting globally, Zentelligence (Research) advises
governments, suppliers, business and the media on the evolution,
application and delivery of leading-edge technologies and
specialises in the areas of eGovernment and information
security.
For further information on Zentelligence and its research,
presentation and analyst services visitwww.zentelligence.com