I agree wholeheartedly with Crispin, national ID is a bad idea. The thought of my identity being authenticated from an agency that hired the lowest bidder to implement and design the entire system makes me more than a little nervous. ___________________________________ Andrew Plato, CISSP President / Principal Consultant Anitian Corporation 503-644-5656 Office 503-644-8574 Fax 503-201-0821 Mobile www.anitian.com ___________________________________ > -----Original Message----- > There are two large problems with national ID, and this proposal only > addresses one of them. The problem it addresses (and not all > that well) > is the civil liberties issue of making it too easy for the > Government to > track your personal activities. > > The problem it does not address is identity theft: no matter > what ID you > specify, if it becomes a national ID, then its value as an identity > theft document increases a lot. The offices that issue these > credentials > don't do a great job of authenticating applicants, and the cards > themselves are not very tamper-resistant or difficult to forge. > Therefore, making them valid national IDs just increases the > motive to > steal or fake them. > > National ID is a pathologically bad idea. But various branches of the > Government won't give it up because the ways in which it is > pathological > are non-obvious. > > Crispin > > -- > Crispin Cowan, Ph.D. > Chief Scientist, WireX http://wirex.com/~crispin/ > Security Hardened Linux Distribution: http://immunix.org > Available for purchase: > http://wirex.com/Products/Immunix/purchase.htm> l > > Just say ".Nyet" > >
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