One of the arguments raging about Identity Cards is the matter of security. The government would like us to believe that its proposed identity register will be secure. Those who live in the real world realise that any database is only as secure as its operatives. Also, putting everything into one place provides a single point of failure – which anyone with an ounce of common sense recognises is a really, really bad idea. Unless you are the home secretary, then common sense is not a job requirement; merely a fanatical desire to implement the equally fanatical prime minister’s pet project irrespective of whether it is a good idea, whether it will do what is proposed and stuff peoples’ personal privacy concerns because they don’t count.
This little story illustrates just what weakness there is in such a proposal:
“Kendrix started working in a West Seattle licensing branch, processing driver’s license applications and renewals, in June 2001. She began issuing the fake IDs in early 2004, until an anonymous tip to law enforcement revealed her practices and she was arrested last May.”
As the judge pointed out (a statement of the blindingly obvious to those prepared to exercise the little grey cells)
“This is about the most dangerous kind of fake ID we can have out there,” Lasnik said. “It’s like having a skeleton key to get into anybody’s house or anybody’s car, and you can rob anybody you want to.”
It would be nice to think that the control freaks in Whitehall are taking notice of cases such as this, but I’m not holding my breath.
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