Not so long ago Little Nicky was at The Guardian Comment Is Free blog banging the drum about the Government's (President Blair's) pet scheme to make us all buy ID cards and particularly about the insecurity built into I.D. Card technology. These cards will make it easier to steal our identity, get loans in our name, claim job - seekers allowance on our NHI numbers while we slave (well OK, while you slave) to make ends meet.
You know I.D. Cards, the things that are supposed to prevent us being victims if Identity theft, credit card fraud, wrongful arrest and being harassed by bogus asylum seekers? I.D. Cards that will put an end to the benefits fraud that is threatening to impoverish Daily Mail readers as they have to pay more and more tax to fund the expensive habits of black-Irish-dwarf-lesbian-one-legged-single mothers? Yes, those I.D. Cards, the real purpose of which is to allow control freak governments obsessed with surveillance and social control to track our movements twenty four hours a day.
Well it seems the bright libertarians at The Guardian took on board Nicky's warnings about the security problems. The got hold of a couple of the new hi - tech passports (which use the same technology as the proposed I.D. Cards.) and within 24 hours had cracked the security on the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip that contains all the personal data and extracted the information needed to perpetrate an identity fraud, forge a passport or make a false benefits claim.
Read the full story here:
Unfortunately the story does not appear on a page where you may leave your comments. But I'm sure it will.
The Home Office are blustering about biometric data being uncloneable. Well maybe, although that is irrelevant as there are known ways of forging fingerprints and facial biometric identifiers, not yet operational in airports, are known to have a 20 - 25% failure rate. That means as many as one in four psychos could get through border control.
The Home Office argument falls apart however when we realise that the man cracking the passports did so in twenty four hours, having spent less than £200. How many man hours and £millions have the government invested in developing this useless system?
This kind of thing happens so often because most of us have been brainwashed into jumping up and down, waving our arms in the air and shouting hooray (or hurrah if you're a New Labour ex - public schoolboy) whenever new technology is mentioned.
But earlier in the week Nicky was exposing the hopelessness of Digital Television (and dared not even mention Digital Radio lest the servers be swamped by a torrent of comments expressing resentment and dissatisfaction. And only yesterday I was exchanging messages with someone about Internet Telephony in general (a total non - starter, the internet and telephony are incompatible) and Skype in particular. Skype fans remember, before hitting the keyboard to express your indignation, Skype is almost a homonym of hype and once they have signed up a big enough customer base the hype will end. BTW you don't get free calls at all, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Login next week and Little Nicky will reveal all.
Always be sceptical of new technology, said he who made a lucrative career and saved taxpayers and companies £millions out of doing just that.