Let's take a break from Liebermania for a moment to look at a very important - yet still vastly underreported - story.
As if the government's tracking of your movements, purchases, and so forth weren't reason enough to hate Real ID, some Dieboldesque reasons are emerging, too.
I reviewed Real ID and why it's such a bad (yet imminent) thing in a
previous diary. In short, soon the government will be able to access swiped data - including a retinal scan or other biometric information - provided by you every time you make a purchase, withdraw money from your bank account, or enter a federal building.
The national ID card system is about to be phased in in Britain as well as the United States, and there it's a much better-reported story than it is here. The Sunday Times has uncovered an inherent flaw in the security of Real ID cards and other RFID-based systems that make them "absolutely useless" and a big identity-theft risk to boot:
Times Online
August 07, 2006
Cloning demo adds to fears over ID card scheme
By Philippe Naughton
News that a German computer expert has managed to "clone" the data chip on his new passport has called into question government assurances about the security of the planned national ID card - which will use similar technology.
Lukas Grunwald gave a demonstration at a conference in Las Vegas last week to show that he could copy the information stored on the new passports, that have been issued in Britain since March.
Although Herr Grunwald was not able to modify any of the data on his own passport, he was able to insert the copied information on another chip that could be put into a forged passport or used to fool a card-reading machine.
Herr Grunwald told the Wired.com news website that it had taken him just two weeks to work out how to clone the radio frequency ID, or RFID, chips contained in his own German passport.
"The whole passport design is totally brain-damaged," he said. "From my point of view, all of these RFID passports are a huge waste of money. They're not increasing security at all."
The German's cloning exploit provides another argument for campaigners against the British ID cards, who argue that they will violate people's privacy, will be too expensive and are unnecessary.
They also back up the view of Dame Stella Rimington, the former MI5 director, who said last year that if the cards could be forged they would be "absolutely useless".
Phil Booth, national coordinator of the No2ID campaign, said that although Herr Grunwald had only been copying the data on his passport, still encrypted, a hacker in the Netherlands had managed to get readable data from another passport after "a couple of hours on a normal PC".
"As we understand it, the ID card will be a passport lite, for travel inside Europe, which means that they will have to use the same technology as in the passport on the cards, which begs the question - if they are already compromised why are we going down this line?" Mr Booth said.
"They're grabbing more and more of our data, saying it's secure but it's not. Any security expert will, tell you that its far more dangerous having a security system that is insecure being sold to the public as secure."
The use of RFID chips in biometric passports has been criticised by many in the computer security industry, who consider them fundamentally insecure because they are so easy to copy. The chips are widely used in office access cards, hotel key cards and even in school canteens as payment swipe cards.
The United States, where the "e-passports" will start to be issued from October, has already changed the design of its new passport to incorporate a metal shield in the cover to protect them from unauthorised readers when they are closed - a security feature that it may not be possible to include in a card.
Campaigners against the system, including Mr Booth, say that the passports could make their holders the target of terrorists, who could use unauthorised card readers to identify someone's nationality when they are travelling.
The security flaw demonstrated by Herr Grunwald could be an issue for countries that introduced automated passport inspection, which could be duped by cloned chips.
The cloning of biometric and other personal data would also open the way for identity theft, a fast-growing crime which, in theory, the passports and future ID cards are designed to prevent.
But Tony Blair said last week that the plan to introduce ID cards would be a "major plank" of Labour's next election manifesto, despite leaked e-mails published in The Sunday Times showing that senior civil servants had serious doubts about the feasibility of the scheme.
Gus Hosein, a visiting fellow in information systems at the London School of Economics, and one of the authors of a report last year that estimated the cost of the ID card scheme at up to £19.2 billion, said of Herr Grunwald's cloning: "It just shows that this is an incredibly stupid technology to put in passports."
Dr Hosein, who is also a senior fellow of Privacy International, added: "It's bad public policy. You're spending so much money - billions across the world - on this technology, only to find new problems with it every day. New Labour seems to be obsessed with any form of technology that they think can solve a social ill, particiularly if it gives more information to central government."
The Diebold voting machines were supposed to increase security at the polls, too, and look where that's gotten us.
But there are even more reasons to hate Real ID coming to light, this one again thanks to the Sunday Times. The cards will require constant changes, for example every time a renter changes his or her address. Projections are that the government will be able to raise revenues by nickel-and-diming the little guy:
TONY BLAIR'S identity card scheme could make up to £11 billion in "profits" for the government by imposing a range of additional charges on the public, a confidential Home Office memo claims. [...]
Card holders will also be charged an extra addition £8 for every time they need to change their details, to record a change in name, marital status or address. Approximately one in ten households move house in a single year, and the Home Office would be able to impose hefty fines for failing to inform it of changes.
According to the leaked document, which emerged after Blair spoke in defence of the scheme, these charges will enable ID cards to raise as much as £1.5 billion a year in revenue for the Treasury.
Not enough for you? How about an actual case study? Alabama already has a proto-Real ID program in effect, and the tiny Cullman Times (Ala.) reports that the biggest problem so far is miles of nightmarish red tape for people trying to conduct their day-to-day lives:
Hopeful drivers hit a traffic jam before even getting on the road Friday in Cullman.
Some lining up as early as 6:30 a.m., dozens of people crowded the halls of the county courthouse, all waiting for their turn with the state-employed license examiner.
At noon Friday, 15-year-old Hannah Migs said she had been waiting more than three hours to take her learner's license test.
"I really wasn't expecting it take this long when I got here," she said. "But they're just not going very fast."
Similar stories were told across the board by residents waiting in line.
"I think it's the new computers they use for the testing," said Linsay Smith of West Point. "When I got my permit, we each had our own desk and they tested a whole bunch of us at the same time. It was a lot faster."
While Berlin resident Audrey Smith still had a long wait ahead of her, she said she had no choice but to wait it out, unable to cash her paycheck until she got a new photo identification card. [...]
Similar problems have been reported across the state recently.
In a February article of The Birmingham News, Col. Mike Coppage, director of the state Department of Public Safety, blamed computer foul ups for the problem.
He made similar statements to The Decatur Daily in July.
In particular, he said, Alabama's Real I.D. system, which requires added proof of identity and more paperwork, is slowing the application process down considerably.
Still think a national ID card is a good idea? Well, Congressional Republicans do. And thanks to them, your state will soon be on board with this wonderful program. All in the name (once again) of fighting the endless "war on terror".
