Why You CAN Trust The Government WIth An ID Card Database

[audidoody]

Piss ups and breweries

Thieves take Digital Britain PCs
The thieves reportedly stole a 'couple of laptops'
Computers owned by the UK's Digital Inclusion Team, charged with getting millions of Britons online, have been stolen in a burglary.
The offices of the quango, based in London's Soho, were broken into overnight.
A spokesperson for Martha Lane Fox, the UK's Digital Champion said that "a couple of laptops had been stolen", but had no further comment on the incident.
Ms Fox revealed details of the break-in on the social networking site Twitter.
"O bloody hell the #digitalinclusion office has been broken into and all computers taken (," she wrote.
Ms Fox, who co-founded lastminute.com in the late 1990s, was appointed Digital Champion by the UK government.
She has been given responsibility for connecting some of the 17 million Britons who are currently not online, either out of choice or because they cannot afford internet connectivity.
In a recent interview with the BBC, Ms Fox said she would initially concentrate on the six million poorest "nonliners" .
The Digital Inclusion Team is funded through the Department for Communities and Local Government.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8263110.stm

[Spiritual_Beggar]

Seriously, how long do you think until all our banks accounts are stolen?

Absolute joke.

[chris_w]

Spiritual_Beggar said:

Seriously, how long do you think until all our banks accounts are stolen?

Absolute joke.

And whose Twitter feed do I need to subscribe to to make sure I find out when it happens?

[odyssey2200]

So when everyone has t'interweb, whether they like it or not, what advantage does that give the Gov't?

[FourWheelDrift]

odyssey2200 said:

So when everyone has t'interweb, whether they like it or not, what advantage does that give the Gov't?

When the whole of the UK is online then they will be able to inform us all on their changes to government policy, new taxes, new laws and what we must or must not eat/say/do via their new government service "Twatter".

"It will save the taxpayer millions" they will proclaim. Yes it will save millions, millions going to where it's needed most, however due to typical government creative accounting our taxes will be spent on more civil servants to manage the system and the database.


Strangely enough a government database of public information was one of the subjects of an episode of Yes Minister, 29 years ago - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(Yes_Mini...

[BrassMan]

FourWheelDrift said:

Strangely enough a government database of public information was one of the subjects of an episode of Yes Minister, 29 years ago - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(Yes_Mini...

I owe most of my cynicism to Yes Minister. It's amazing how little things have changed in 25 years.

[bga]

I must be a bit thick today, what is the correlation between some hardware theft and the (in)security of a government database?

If that test is to be applied to the private sector then all of our private data held by them is basically wide open.

[DonnyMac]

bga said:

I must be a bit thick today, what is the correlation between some hardware theft and the (in)security of a government database?

Databases are stored on hardware, this particular hardware was owned by the agency in charge of 17m public records.

Which hardware they decided to store those 17m records on is unknown to me, maybe some on a couple of laptops?

Ironically, if most of the reports of this theft are from internet sources, the 17m will never find out their data has gone astray.

[bga]

DonnyMac said:

bga said:

I must be a bit thick today, what is the correlation between some hardware theft and the (in)security of a government database?

Databases are stored on hardware, this particular hardware was owned by the agency in charge of 17m public records.

Which hardware they decided to store those 17m records on is unknown to me, maybe some on a couple of laptops?

Ironically, if most of the reports of this theft are from internet sources, the 17m will never find out their data has gone astray.

Indeed databases are stored on hardware, I would like to see a thief walk out of a secure data centre carrying the kit the DB's were stored on. As much as the government are a shower of poo when it comes to their IT, their security standards are generally higher than the private sector. Not even the govt would host those data records on laptops which are being given away.

Some laptops going missing is not representative of the governments ability to secure ID data. You cannot link the two based on the information provided.

[esselte]

bga said:

Indeed databases are stored on hardware, I would like to see a thief walk out of a secure data centre carrying the kit the DB's were stored on. As much as the government are a shower of poo when it comes to their IT, their security standards are generally higher than the private sector. Not even the govt would host those data records on laptops which are being given away.

.

No,they usually dump them onto CDD and lose those instead.... one of several similar reprts

[The Black Flash]

bga said:

DonnyMac said:

bga said:

I must be a bit thick today, what is the correlation between some hardware theft and the (in)security of a government database?

Databases are stored on hardware, this particular hardware was owned by the agency in charge of 17m public records.

Which hardware they decided to store those 17m records on is unknown to me, maybe some on a couple of laptops?

Ironically, if most of the reports of this theft are from internet sources, the 17m will never find out their data has gone astray.

Indeed databases are stored on hardware, I would like to see a thief walk out of a secure data centre carrying the kit the DB's were stored on. As much as the government are a shower of poo when it comes to their IT, their security standards are generally higher than the private sector. Not even the govt would host those data records on laptops which are being given away.

You missed the one where they lost 25 million people's records then?

Darn...beaten too it.

Edited by The Black Flash on Saturday 19th September 13:02

[Bill]

Oh the delicious irony! especially when they came up with this little gem of an idea,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8102756.stm

the internet, it's a Human Right you know!!

[Dogwatch]

Why does this outfit have to be in Central London at all? Is it because they all live there?

[cs02rm0]

bga said:

As much as the government are a shower of poo when it comes to their IT, their security standards are generally higher than the private sector.

That's not my experience.

[bga]

esselte said:

No,they usually dump them onto CDD and lose those instead.... one of several similar reprts

There are several similar reports covering private and public sector losses. As it is the the largest source of data it's not surprising that the govt loses more. That doesn't make it any more acceptable.

I've worked on or audited security of projects at DwP, NHS, DfES over the last 10 years in addition to 50+ blue chip firms. With a few exceptions (FS industry generally) there are greater levels of control mandated for public sector IT projects. Unfortunately the bar isn't that high for either sector in general when you take the human element into account. With this in mind, it is a huge leap of faith to assume that the private sector could do it any better, especially considering that an ID database is (imo) a stupid idea in the first place.

[alfabadass]

Don't think the theives would be interested in the data, more to sell on to buy crack.

Data on a laptop is no different to data in a filin cabinet. Both can be stolen if wanted.

Luddites need a slap for holding this country back.

[esselte]

alfabadass said:

Data on a laptop is no different to data in a filin cabinet. Both can be stolen if wanted.

.

You'd need a hell of a big filing cabinet to store details of 25 million people..and it'd be a bit obvious if you were carrying it..

[grumbledoak]

alfabadass said:

Luddites need a slap for holding this country back.

Luddites? What word would you choose for those who cannot see how unnecessary, costly, and risky this proposal is. Stupid? Gullible?

[eldar]

cs02rm0 said:

bga said:

As much as the government are a shower of poo when it comes to their IT, their security standards are generally higher than the private sector.

That's not my experience.

Mine neither. They often think their standards are higher than the private sector, but as they are often 2 years behind the times....

[hornet]

To be honest, the thing I find more sinister about this whole episode is the idea that the Government wants to get people online even though they have chosen not to be. Surely they have better things to be doing?