What I really want is all my biometric readings in a national database that I know will absolutely be safe and will never be abused by someone like John Ashcroft (whose own state, don't forget, voted against in favor of a guy they knew was dead). In other words, I'm with Crispin and Andrew on this one. James R. Wilcox, CISSP 503 245-6934 503 799-8438 mobile -----Original Message----- From: owner-crime@private [mailto:owner-crime@private]On Behalf Of Andrew Plato Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 4:07 PM To: crime@private Cc: T. Kenji Sugahara; Crispin Cowan Subject: RE: CRIME Identification Alternatives 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" > >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Dec 18 2002 - 18:38:48 PST