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ID Cards / Identification Cards

Perhaps - but the BoingBoing report is about ALL children getting recorded (ID by the back door), the 2nd report is perhaps more dangerous - a database of all the troubled kids and those who could be in danger.
 
And more misplaced data.

An ex-contractor at the Department for Work and Pensions had two discs with thousands of benefit claimants' details for more than a year, the DWP says.

The unencrypted discs revealed the type of benefits paid, but a DWP spokesman said they did not contain bank details.

The woman told the News of the World she forgot to return them after she stopped working for the DWP a year ago.

In October, two child benefit discs containing the personal details of 25 million people went missing.

The HM Revenue and Customs discs containing the entire child benefit database, unregistered and unencrypted had been sent to the National Audit Office - but they did not arrive.
Click to expand...

BBC News

And it goes on....
 
Poll shows more people now oppose ID cards
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 3:46am GMT 03/12/2007

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.

The last time the pollsters asked the same question in July 2005, shortly after the London bombings, 45 per cent were in favour and 42 per cent opposed.

The poll findings will be another blow to ministers who have been adamant that the ID project would proceed despite the child records fiasco.

ID cards are due to be introduced from next year for foreign nationals and from 2009 for all British citizens applying for a new passport.

The charge for a combined ID card and passport will be more than £100 in order to fund the £550 million annual cost to the Home Office.

Ministers have said the project should be self-financing and not a drain on taxes.

The Government has made a number of claims for the advantages of an ID scheme, including making it easier to track terrorists and criminals, bear down on ID fraud and tackle illegal immigration.

But the recent disclosure that illegal immigrants were licensed to work as security guards by a Government agency and the ease with which the personal data of 25 million families were lost have clearly been a blow to public confidence.

There is also a growing number of opponents who would pay a fine or risk prison by refusing to hand over their details.

Phil Booth, of the campaign group No2ID, said: "Clearly a majority no longer trust that the Government can secure their personal information.

"It's hard to say whether proceeding with an ID scheme that will log your every application for credit, or registration with a clinic and add fingerprints to the data that officials will then lose or compromise is more pig-headed or foolhardy. Either way, public opinion is against the scheme now."

David Cameron recently told the Prime Minister that the public would find it "bizarre" if the Government was not willing now to "stop and think" about ID cards.

However, at the weekend Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, continued to defend the scheme and said the inclusion of fingerprints would ensure the data's security.

"I will be able to be confident that my identity… will be linked to my fingerprint so just knowing who I am, where I live and what my bank details are will not be enough to be able to take my identity," she said in a television interview.

"It is an increased protection even against times when people's biographical details are stolen or lost."

The Government has dropped plans, on cost grounds, to build a new database for the scheme. It will instead ''piggy-back" on an existing Whitehall IT system.

http://tinyurl.com/3atsjs
 
And it goes on....
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indeed it does... i'm starting to wonder if this sort of thing isn't a fairly regular ocurrance that just happens to have been kept quiet before now :(

Disc details of 40,000 could have been lost

A DISC containing the personal details of 40,000 Kirklees residents may have been lost by the Government.
Now council chiefs in Kirklees have put a freeze on posting computer discs containing personal information.
A review has revealed the personal details may have been lost.

It comes after the Government had to admit it lost discs containing the details of 25m people – almost half the country – in November.
The latest fears have has forced Kirklees Council Tory leader Councillor Robert Light to impose a moratorium on sending any more data until their end of a security review.
Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post this morning, Coun Light said: "It is essential we are confident that information we supply to Government departments and outside agencies through computer technology – either directly or on disc – is safe and secure after in leaves our hands.
"Following last week's national publicity in relation to the child benefit issue, we have carried out an initial assessment of all the implications for Kirklees residents of Government processes relating to information that we are required to send to its departments.
"We do have concerns about some aspects of those arrangements, and as a result we will be putting a freeze on our supply of computer inform
ation to Government departments until we are satisfied that information we send is secure and confidentially received."

Labour group leader Coun Mehboob Khan said: "I am very worried by the situation. Kirklees Council has done the right thing by suspending distribution of private data. In future all data should be regarded as important as cash and only handled by firms who transport cash."

The Kirklees disc was sent to the Department for Work and Pensions as part of the council's obligation to supply data so its progress could be monitored.
The unencrypted disc was sent by courier and officials raised concerns that the disc might be missing on September 18. It has still not been found.

A DWP spokesman said: "We have been carefully monitoring all the details of people who might be affected and there is no evidence of fraud. We believe this disc is still somewhere in the system."
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Yorkshire Evening Post
 
rynner said:
Poll shows more people now oppose ID cards
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 3:46am GMT 03/12/2007

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.
Click to expand...

I think the figures are largely irrelevant. There could be 95% opposition of ID cards and it won't really matter to the government; it's never been about what the actual people want. If there was a large scale, united movement against the ID card, it would just be a case of finding a similar but pitched slightly differently scheme and pushing that one through very quickly. Either that or the government will start shouting "terrorism!" or "paedophile!" even louder.

Actually, I think ID cards and other control schemes will use a different tact or springboard in the near future and shift the 'bogeyman focus' elsewhere. The government will address (illegal) immigration by using some ID schemes (with biometrics built in as they, in theory will work quickly, 'on the spot' with mobile readers (another IT and gadget contract in the offing for some ministers brother-in-law) than hauling suspects to police stations. After all, the government are listening to our fears and worries about the impact of (illegal) immigration and only want to help us. :|

Ultimately, for whatever reason, the government are desperate for us to have these things (or similar) and it's just a case of them finding the way that will create the least friction and fuss.
 
I wonder if its a hang-over from the old days (1970's and earlier) when it would have been as quick and very safe to send data via courier rather than relying on the non-existent computer communications between departments. Safety being that 1 person only handled the delivery and oversaw the handover.

You have to wonder how poor the governmental IT infrastructure is. Don't departments share anything? Shouldn't the government departments be leading the way when it comes to data security.

When it comes to contractors you end up with more issues, often when it comes to data access the contractors have the same privileges as a full-time employee (there is a report on this somewhere). And of course with things like pen-drives (1 or 2 Gbyte plus now) it is all too easy to transport data from location to location (who would know?).

Companies of all sizes, including local and national government, hold huge amounts of very private information on virtually every individual in the UK, yet amazingly, there are no laws to force them to either protect that information (such as by encrypting the data), or to tell you if your unencrypted information gets lost or stolen. Make no mistake about this: Ever since the first credit card number was put on the first laptop computer or CD, companies have been losing your information and just simply not telling you.

There's a sad fact of economic life here: It's cheaper for a company to say nothing and do nothing if they lose Joe Public's private information, rather than to do the right thing - ensure that all the data is encrypted, or telling consumers if there's a risk that their private data could have got into the wrong hands.
Click to expand...

BCS
 
This I do not like either:

Ex-HMRC chief lands £200,000 Whitehall job
By Andrew Porter, Political Editor
Last Updated: 7:28am GMT 04/12/2007

The former head of HM Revenue and Customs, who resigned over the loss of data discs containing the personal details of 25 million people, has returned to work in Whitehall on a £200,000 salary.

Paul Gray has taken up a position under Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, after just 13 days out of work.

His appointment sparked dismay among MPs. Confessing to be "very surprised" by the move, John McFall, the Treasury Select Committee chairman, said: "Instead of falling on his sword he's fallen on a feather bed."

Vince Cable MP, the acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, told Channel 4 News: "It makes the whole resignation look absolutely cynical."

Mr Gray's job will involve "special projects to develop civil service skills".

A statement from the Cabinet Office stated that Mr Gray resigned from HMRC with immediate effect on 20th November.

It said: "However, for contractual reasons, he remains a senior civil servant. He will be leaving the civil service at the end of this year.

"In the meantime, he has agreed to a request from Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell to undertake a short piece of work on cross-government matters until Christmas.

"When he resigned with immediate effect, Paul Gray's period of notice meant that he would be paid until the end of the year.

"As a result, he could receive payment for no work, or receive payment for doing some work.

"It was thought to be better in the public interest that he did some work. There is no additional cost to the public purse. He will leave the payroll on 31 December."

http://tinyurl.com/3dbn6t
 
There could be 95% opposition of ID cards and it won't really matter to the government; it's never been about what the actual people want.
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There was an irish writer whose name i forget (Pietro might know) who around the time of the potato famine, floated the idea that the way that governments treat convicts and immigrants is actually the way that they'd like to treat all of us, if they believed they could get away with it.

Sometimes i can't help thinking he was right :(


I wonder if its a hang-over from the old days (1970's and earlier) when it would have been as quick and very safe to send data via courier rather than relying on the non-existent computer communications between departments. Safety being that 1 person only handled the delivery and oversaw the handover.
Click to expand...

I bet they're wishing they never abandoned that pneumatic tube network now... though all things being equal, if they hadn't, the disks would prob. be blocking the pipe somewhere under earls court :D
 
And when your ID really has to be secure, it isn't:

Lost data discs 'endanger protected witnesses'
By Andrew Porter, Political Editor
Last Updated: 2:20am GMT 05/12/2007

Hundreds of people in police witness protection programmes have been put at risk by the loss of millions of child benefit records, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

The missing data discs are understood to contain both the real names and the new identities of up to 350 people who have had their identities changed after giving evidence against major criminals.

The development is one of the most serious so far in the missing data discs scandal, in which the child benefit records of 25 million people - including their names, addresses, birth dates, national insurance numbers and bank account details - were lost by HM Revenue and Customs.

The new identities of protected witnesses would be valuable property on the criminal market and, if they fell into the wrong hands, could place their lives and those of their families in jeopardy.

It will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds to provide the witnesses with yet another identity.

The Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, has been made aware of the threat and the Metropolitan Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) are investigating. However the Ministry of Justice refused to comment.

A senior police source said: "This is disastrous. People's lives could be in danger. It makes a mockery of the witness protection programme."

The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, said the development was "alarming". He added: "It is another blow to people's trust in this Government."

http://tinyurl.com/2uu3aa
 
rynner said:
And when your ID really has to be secure, it isn't:

Lost data discs 'endanger protected witnesses'
By Andrew Porter, Political Editor
Last Updated: 2:20am GMT 05/12/2007

Hundreds of people in police witness protection programmes have been put at risk by the loss of millions of child benefit records, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

The missing data discs are understood to contain both the real names and the new identities of up to 350 people who have had their identities changed after giving evidence against major criminals.

The development is one of the most serious so far in the missing data discs scandal, in which the child benefit records of 25 million people - including their names, addresses, birth dates, national insurance numbers and bank account details - were lost by HM Revenue and Customs.

http://tinyurl.com/2uu3aa
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It's staggering, it really is. And to think politicians and the go out of their way to stop us to seeing their Oddbins till receipts and other crap; anything to stop us pulling back the curtain and seeing what greedy, incompetent pillocks they all are and yet, the rest of us? "Yeah, just throw those disks over there; I'll sort it out later when I get back from lunch". "What? Those disks have gone missing and millions of people are worried as to just how deep they're in the shit? Oh dear, I won't get sacked will I?"

It won't happen, but some kind of legislation really does have to be put in place where (the right) people are made accountable for idiocy like this. Other people lose jobs over far less serious issues than this in the real world. No safe and convenient 'retirement rather than resignation' culture either. :x :x :x
 
The voice of reason perhaps?

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."
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Source

I wonder how long he'll keep his job.
 
£20,000 reward offered for discs :roll:

A reward of £20,000 is being offered for the return of two HM Revenue and Customs CDs containing the personal details of 25 million people.
It comes as the main searches end for the discs, lost after being sent from the HMRC to the National Audit Office.

Meanwhile, the acting head of the HMRC said there had been seven incidents of "some significance" involving data security breaches since April 2005.

These "may well" indicate systemic failure, David Hartnett added.

Apologies

Facing the Commons Treasury sub-committee, Mr Hartnett revealed that, among other incidents, the HMRC's IT partner had lost a disc containing banking information in 2006. This was later found.

He said that all breaches are recorded, including such events as "leaving a cupboard door open overnight".

HMRC said the breaches were already in the public domain and had been reported to the Information Commissioner.

They include letters about tax credits being sent to the wrong addresses; confidential waste falling off the back of a lorry; records to a pension company about 15,000 people being lost; and a laptop containing sensitive information being stolen from a car in Liverpool.

BBC political correspondent Guto Harri said Prime Minister Gordon Brown was reluctant to admit systemic failure but added that a review was already in place.

Speaking about the recent loss of 25 million people's details, Mr Hartnett said morale among HMRC staff was now "very low indeed", but workers were "determined to learn from this".

The two unencrypted CDs, containing the entire child benefit database, were posted from HMRC offices in Gateshead in October, but never arrived at the NAO in London.

The prime minister and chancellor have apologised and an inquiry is under way, alongside the police investigation.

Millions of families have been told to look out for fraudulent use of their details, which include children's names, addresses, dates of birth and National Insurance and bank details.

The HMRC sent letters last week to the seven million households whose records were on the discs, in which it said it expected the CDs were still on government property.

Rubbish tip

But the update from the Metropolitan Police, leading the search, does not go so far, although it does say "to date there is no evidence that the lost data has ended up in criminal possession".

The statement also reveals that the core team hunting the discs has been cut from 47 to 32.

It sets out day-by-day the searches that have taken place of offices and computers and even a rubbish tip.

The update on the progress of the search came as it was reported in the Daily Telegraph that the identities of up to 350 of people in witness protection programmes were contained on the CDs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7128851.stm
 
And some very well paid bright spark states the bleeding obvious.

The government needs to ensure greater protection for people's personal information, a think-tank has said.

A report by Demos warns that people are losing control of their private data and are not sufficiently aware of how many bodies hold their information.

It wants to see banks offering an insurance-type "no-claims" bonus for those who protect their identity.

The report comes less than a month after HM Revenue and Customs lost discs containing 25 million people's details.
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BBC

I'm not happy about the bits in bold as I suspect it is nigh on possible to to do reliably and I detest that kind of carrot.

And for why ID is a crap idea, back to Schneier in May 2007.

In an ideal world, what we would want is some kind of ID that denoted intention. We'd want all terrorists to carry a card that said "evildoer” and everyone else to carry a card that said "honest person who won't try to hijack or blow up anything.” Then security would be easy. We could just look at people's IDs, and, if they were evildoers, we wouldn't let them on the airplane or into the building.

This is, of course, ridiculous; so we rely on identity as a substitute. In theory, if we know who you are, and if we have enough information about you, we can somehow predict whether you're likely to be an evildoer. But that's almost as ridiculous. If you need any evidence of this, look at the single largest identity-based anti-terrorism security measure in this country: the No-Fly List. The No-Fly List has been a disaster in every way: it harasses innocents, it doesn't catch anyone guilty, and it is trivially easy to evade. This is what you get with identity-based security, and this is what you should expect more of with REAL ID.
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Source

Yes its aimed at the US system, but much of what is said is equally applicable.
 
If a bank is happy to give me a better rate if I do all my transactions responsibly through them...great.
Although I would, as part of the deal expect them to make my account details secure and the internet safe.
 
and here we go again with our wonderfully secure data.

i love the way we keep hearing 'there's no evidence of x' in each of these cases, when in fact, it's because we really don't know what's happened and there's no actual evidence of, erm, anything at all.

Building society loses staff data

Leeds Building Society has mislaid information containing the personal details of its 1,000-strong workforce.

The West Yorkshire-based mutual, the seventh largest in the UK, has warned its employees to be vigilant as the data includes bank and salary details.

In a statement to its employees, it said there was no evidence the data had been taken from the building.

The information was lost when the human resources department was moved during a refurbishment of its Leeds head office.

Referring to this move, the statement said: "There has been a significant amount of disruption to achieve this in a short space of time and, whilst every care has been taken, some information is yet unaccounted for in the move from the 1st to the 4th floor.


In the extremely unlikely event that any member of staff suffers a loss as a result of this situation the society will make full reimbursement
Statement to staff

"This contains the details you receive on your payslip, some of which is already in the public domain (i.e. on cheques, in the telephone directory, etc).

"We believe that the details are still in the building and are doing all that is possible to confirm this."

Searches of the head office building in Albion Street, Leeds, were continuing on Tuesday, a spokesman said.

The statement went on: "The missing information is not sufficient in itself to allow an unauthorised person to access a building society or bank account but we ask that you are vigilant in regard to the account into which your salary is paid.

"In the extremely unlikely event that any member of staff suffers a loss as a result of this situation, the society will make full reimbursement."

Managers were alerted to the problem last Thursday but staff were only told about it on Monday night.

The data loss comes amid raised concerns about the security of personal data following the disappearance of two discs from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs containing the details of 25 million people.

Leeds Building Society is the UK's seventh largest with 70 branches in the UK and a call centre in Leeds. However, customers are not affected.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west ... 138106.stm
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
and here we go again with our wonderfully secure data.
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Yep!

Thousands of driver details lost

The Driver and Vehicle Agency in Northern Ireland has lost the personal details of 6,000 people.
The data was on two discs and went missing after being sent to the agency's headquarters in Swansea.

The DVA said the data was being provided in response to a safety recall by a number of manufacturers.

The head of the agency said the information was not encrypted. It included details of 7,685 vehicles and more than 6,000 vehicle keepers.

The data includes the keeper's name, address, registration mark of the vehicle, chassis number, make and colour.

However, the DVA said no personal financial data was on the discs.
[Phew! So that's a relief! :roll: ]

"Letters have been sent to all registered keepers of vehicles involved," it said.

Northern Ireland's Environment Minister Arlene Foster said the discs were dispatched on 20 and 21 November and both arrived in Coventry.

However, on 5 December the DVA was told that the discs had not arrived in Swansea.

Ms Foster said she was "not optimistic" that the discs would be found.

Brendan Magee, chief executive of the Driver and Vehicle Agency, said it was "deeply disappointed" by the incident and could "understand why customers would be concerned".

Government agencies

He added: "We were undertaking a review of how we transmit all this information. We completed that review last week.

"Unfortunately, this incident had taken place before we completed the review and we deeply regret it and we regret the embarrassment we caused to the customers.

"It wasn't encrypted. This was one of the problems we had identified through our review, that this was an actual weakness. We are now looking at alternative methods of transporting this information."

Louise McElheron, one of those affected by the incident, said: "We have to provide our details to these government agencies to get child benefit and register cars.

"We're trusting that they will treat our data with respect. And really we're victim to lax procedures, careless individuals or at worst dishonesty."

In a statement, Parcelforce Worldwide said it apologised for the loss of the two discs.

It said it had "searched exhaustively" for the packages "and will continue to work with the DVLA in our efforts to trace them".

Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers said it "beggars belief" that the government was "still losing CDs with thousands of people's personal data in the post".

"It looks like it has failed to learn anything from the HMRC catastrophe," she said.

It is the second major blunder involving lost government data in recent weeks.

Last month, two discs containing the personal details of 25 million people were lost after HM Revenue and Customs sent them unregistered and unencrypted.

Special telephone helplines have been set up for anyone concerned about the latest loss: 028 70341357 and 028 70341428.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7138408.stm

These discs keep disappearing two by two - maybe some ET Noah is collecting them.... 8)
 
Why are they still sending stuff via post? I can copy gigabytes of data to systems in Belfast, Australia, London, Wales, Scotland, Hong Kong etc. all from the comfort of my desk. Arses the lot of them.
 
lupinwick said:
Why are they still sending stuff via post? I can copy gigabytes of data to systems in Belfast, Australia, London, Wales, Scotland, Hong Kong etc. all from the comfort of my desk. Arses the lot of them.
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Well, if they really want to be Victorian about things, why aren't they sending stuff by The Royal Mail, by Registered Post. :confused:
 
not only are our personal and financial details not safe... neither is our medical info:

Nine NHS trusts lose patient data

Nine NHS trusts in England have admitted losing patient records in a fresh case of wholesale data loss by government services, it has emerged.

Hundreds of thousands of adults and children are thought to be affected by the breaches, which emerged as part of a government-wide data security review.

The Department of Health says patients have been told and there is no evidence data has fallen into the wrong hands.

It follows losses of millions of child benefit claimant and driver details.

The Sunday Mirror reports that one of the breaches was thought to involve the loss of names and addresses of 160,000 children by City and Hackney Primary Care Trust, after a disc failed to arrive at an east London hospital.

I think it's the tip of the iceberg, actually, because there's such carelessness within the NHS
Joyce Robins
Patient Care

Another, lost by Gloucester Partnership Foundation Trust, consisted of archive records relating to patients treated 40 years ago - none of whom is still alive.

The details of what data has been lost by the other trusts have not been disclosed.

The other trusts involved are Bolton Royal Hospital, Sutton and Merton PCT, Sefton Merseyside PCT, Mid-Essex Care Trust, and Norfolk and Norwich.

The East and North Hertfordshire Trust reported a loss but has since found its missing data.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has reported two breaches - meaning that 10 cases have occurred in total.

'Scandal'

The Department of Health said the security breaches were being dealt with locally, and it did not have details of how many patients were affected.

It said investigations were under way, and action would be taken against anyone who had failed to fulfil their responsibilities under data protection laws.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "You have to wonder why on earth it took the Revenue and Customs to lose their discs and for government to institute an inquiry across government for these losses of data to come to light.

"It does feel like there's a sense in government, all parts of government, that we're required to provide data and we are constantly told that it will be protected, but in reality that level of protection simply isn't there."


NINE TRUSTS INVOLVED
City and Hackney
Bolton Royal Hospital
Sutton and Merton
Sefton Merseyside
Mid-Essex Care Trust
Norfolk and Norwich
Gloucester Partnership Foundation Trust
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells
East and North Hertfordshire

And Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "The whole culture of data management in the public sector has to change."

Dr Richard Vautrey, of the British Medical Association, told BBC News 24 there was a strong case for patients having their information available when they see doctors in different medical situations.

But he said: "It's vitally important that any development of centralised systems is done in a careful and measured way."

Dr Vautrey said he did not think the treatment of patients whose data had been lost would be affected, but it would be damaging if patients became reluctant to be fully open with their doctors.

"Government does need to prove that we can trust it in the way that it holds information."

Joyce Robins, from the patient support group Patient Care, said ministers could not gloss over yet another "scandal".

Other incidents

She said: "Every week we hear of a new one. Health records can have anything from your ex-directory phone number to your HIV status.

"I think it's the tip of the iceberg, actually, because there's such carelessness within the NHS and it's always impossible to hold anyone to account and find out who's actually done anything."

NHS chief executive David Nicholson recently wrote to NHS managers reminding them of their responsibilities with regard to data handling.

A DoH spokesperson said: "Since the recent heightened concern about data protection a small number of trusts (nine) have reported breaches of their own security rules.

"There are strict guidelines and procedures for dealing with such breaches."

Police are still searching for two computer discs containing the names, addresses, dates of birth and bank account details of every child benefit claimant after it emerged they had been lost in the post by HM Revenue and Customs in November.

Then on Monday it was revealed the details of three million learner drivers had also been lost after being sent to Iowa in America's mid-west.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7158019.stm
 
All this negative publicity must be getting to the PM:

ID cards 'may not be compulsory'

Identity cards might not become compulsory for all Britons, Gordon Brown has appeared to suggest.
Anyone getting a passport from 2010 will have to get a card, and ministers had said they would be compulsory for all if Labour won the next election.

But, in an apparent softening of that line, Mr Brown described compulsion only as an "option" which is "open".

The Tories and Lib Dems oppose the scheme and say they would axe identity cards if they got into power.

The parties, who oppose the cards on cost, effectiveness and civil liberty grounds, have said they would seek to make them a key issue at the next election.

The current scheme will see anyone applying for a passport having to give their biometric details for a national identity register, although it will be possible to opt-out of getting a card until January 2010.

'Kept open'

The decision not to make getting ID cards compulsory immediately for all, came as a result of Parliamentary opposition to the scheme.

Instead, in February 2006, MPs voted to back a government compromise requiring new legislation before it becomes compulsory for all citizens to get an ID card.

The then prime minister Tony Blair said the government had "won the argument" on ID cards and legislation introducing them would be a "major plank" of Labour's next general election manifesto.

And the Home Office's website says that the National Identity Scheme "will eventually become compulsory... this means that all UK residents over 16 will need to have an ID card".

But, asked at his monthly Downing Street media conference if ID cards had to be compulsory for all citizens in order to be effective, he replied: "That's the option we have left ourselves open to but we haven't legislated for it."

Mr Brown said he believed the government would be able to persuade British citizens of the benefits of identity cards.

"Over the course of the next few months, people will see there is some wisdom in the argument we have put forward for identity cards themselves.

"If you look at the information that we are asking people to give for their identity card, it is not much more than they is actually required for a passport

"But the advantage people have from an identity card is that that information cannot be used without biometric identification.

"And that's why are starting with foreign nationals and that's why we will move further, linking, if you like, passport information over the course of the next few years.

"But we leave open a Parliamentary vote on the decision about compulsion."

'No option'

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett, who introduced the initial identity card scheme, said Mr Brown's words were "in line" with the compromise struck with MPs.

But he added: "In my opinion, without it being mandatory, there is little point in doing it." [Exactly! :twisted: ]

Phil Booth, of anti-ID card campaign group No2ID, agreed that the scheme could not operate as the government intended without being compulsory.

He said there needed to be a "fundamental U-turn" and said the comments might have been a case of Mr Brown softening his language to appease Labour MPs who were against the cards' introduction.

"He has got no option politically but to soften the tone."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7176901.stm
 
This ought to go under Irony (or maybe Strange Crimes), but I'll post here for continuity:

Lost-discs staff given £19m in bonuses
By Christopher Hope, Home Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:08am GMT 10/01/2008

Staff at the Whitehall department that lost the personal details of 25 million families have received a £19 million performance-related bonus.

Some of the payments, worth up to £8,000 each, were made at the end of November, just days after news emerged of the missing child benefit database discs.

The payout at HM Revenue and Customs, which has seen seven data breaches since April 2005, was a 70 per cent rise on the £11 million shared by staff in the previous year.

Figures released showed that 220 senior HMRC staff received bonuses for 2006-7 worth £1.7 million, an average of £8,000 each.

Nearly 38,000 other workers at the 90,000-strong department received bonuses worth £17.2 million, an average of £453 each.

Michael Fallon, the Conservative chairman of the Treasury sub-committee, described the scale of the payout as "staggering".

He said: "Given the over-payments of tax credits and data loss mistakes, constituents might be surprised to learn that a third of staff at HMRC shared a performance-related bonus."

Jane Kennedy, a Treasury minister, said the increase was the result of a "pay assimilation exercise" after HM Customs and Excise and Inland Revenue merged in 2005.

http://tinyurl.com/3doso7
 
Has anybody read this article?

Ben Goldacre of 'Bad Science' (Guardian) has slagged off how unsecure ID cards and biometric data are;

So will biometrics prevent ID theft? Well, it might make it more difficult for you to prove your innocence. And once your fingerprints are stolen, they are harder to replace than your pin number. But here's the final nail in the coffin. Your fingerprint data will be stored in your passport or ID card as a series of numbers, called the "minutiae template". In the new biometric passport with its wireless chip, remember, all your data can be read and decrypted with a device near you, but not touching you....

...Unfortunately, a team of mathematicians published a paper in April this year, showing that they could reconstruct a fingerprint from this data alone. In fact, they printed out the images they made, and then - crucially, completing the circle - used them to fool fingerprint readers.
Click to expand...

Source
 
A few pages back I think. Looks the whole things could be dead and buried - unless of course some other terrorist (or similar) atrocity occurs.
 
Well there might be another terrorist atrocity if the next government wants to retain the state of emergency status.
 
coldelephant said:
Has anybody read this article?

Ben Goldacre of 'Bad Science' (Guardian) has slagged off how unsecure ID cards and biometric data are;
Click to expand...

I posted a link to the Bad Science Guardian column where he also went on to say how you can make fingerprint casts using superglue which fool about 80% of fingerprint scanners at the moment.

I think I'm repeating myself and definitely stating the bleeding obvious now in saying that this way of storing data is unsafe and easily hackable.
It's just the advisors haven't twigged it yet.

After the missing discs and other revelations of data loss by the Government I was half expecting Brown to come out and say 'Of course this would NEVER happen with a secure, centralised data collection and storage system which we need to implement as soon as possible'.
 
Hang on, are you suggesting that the government lost loads of data and will make us use insecure centralised databases containing all our personal and medical data and make us use insecure biometric passports and ID cards on purpose?

Why?
 
Out here in the real world 99.9% of criminals aren't very clever.

A comprehensive DNA database would allow the identification of most offenders. and the vast majority of honest, law abiding public would sleep safer in their beds.
 
ArthurASCII said:
Out here in the real world 99.9% of criminals aren't very clever.

...
Click to expand...
What an extraordinary statement.

You'll have a few references to back that one up, I'm sure.

After all, really successful criminals might even be the ones being offered jobs on the boards of blue chip companies on Wall St. Who's to know? ;)

In fact, isn't it the case, with a lot of serious computer fraud, that although organised crime gangs, around the World, may not know enough to do the hacking and cracking themselves, they can always rope in plenty of penniless nerds and geeks to do the shovel work for them?
 
99% of criminals don't need to be very clever with computers or be able to reconstruct fingerprints from numbers as has been done - they can read up how to fake fingerprints or whatever on the internet just like we did.

Does anybody know if the Pirate's Cookbook gets updated regularly?
 
I know I've come into this thread really late :oops: but...I disagreed with the poll tax, went on all the marches etc but in the end paid up.
However I refuse to be stopped on the street and asked to show my ID.
I haven't read all this thread so I assume that someone has already said "if you're not doing anything wrong you've nothing to fear" or similiar.

ID cards are a (small but important) part of the foundation of a totalitarian state.

"when law becomes oppression resistance becomes duty"
 
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