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At the RSA Conference, subject of the Hollywood film <em>Catch Me If You Can</em> Frank Abagnale claimed the security of the ID cards scheme could be easily compromised
The RSA Conference attracted around 1,500 attendees and will be hosted in London for the next three years. The theme for this year's event was 5th-century Renaissance man Leon Battista Alberti, the creator of the polyalphabetic cipher. Next year's event will focus around the father of modern computer science, Alan Turing (1912–1954).
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Talkback
Now a prime representative of the folks we do NOT want getting our data is saying that the ID card database will make it easier to get hold of not harder. He is also giving us the mechanism by which it would be done.
In the past it has been folks from the security services, private security experts, senior police officers, academics etc etc etc. Polls suggest that the general public are more and more suspicious of this project. The only senior people that seem to be saying that this is all a good idea are the Home Office and the Labour party.
Why oh why then are we still sloshing millions and eventually billions into this scheme?
It would seem to be pure hutzpa on the part of our great leaders. "We know best. You just shut up."
If you want to see more about this issue, try going to www.no2id.net
It is actually going to be very easy to get a "valid" card complete with your own bio-data on it.
All you'll need is supporting documents that are already forged. We all know it's easy to get hold of birth certificates, NI numbers and drivers licenses. If the systems around the supporting documents is weak, then so is the ID card system.
The problem with the ID card is that it will be accepted as absolute proof of identity. Without question you will be the person on that card. At least at the moment you have to provide a couple of supporting documents.
Personally I would have thought the money was better spent on making those supporting documents more secure. At the end of the day we will have spent billions on a card that is going to be used to join your local video shop.