Brownwatch Begins
Tony's had an idea. He's going to make ID cards profitable. How? By charging 8 quid every time ant detail is changed on your ID card record, with hefty fines for non-compliance. He thinks he'll raise 11 billion pounds like this. Insane.
In case anyone thinks Gordon Brown is going to be any better than Blair, here's a wake up call; Brown plans massive widening of ID cards
Far from intending to dump ID cards once he is in Downing Street, Brown is quietly studying how biometric technology - identifying people by unique markers such as fingerprints and iris patterns - could be expanded over the next 20 years to fight crime.
As the song says, Meet the new Boss, same as the old Boss
We won't get fooled again. But the machines will, here's how to clone a biometric passport. The same approach should work on ID cards...
Brown believes that, if
ROFL.
Well, while he believes that, we can watch the whole thing slide into ruin. It's *because* of the increased risk of leaks and identity theft from centralised ID databases that the whole thing will never achieve its goals (this week: immigration, next week, who knows?).
The rather wonderful idea of fingerprint-accessed cars is floated. This seems to forget that cars can be driven by more than one person, so multiple fingerprints would have to be programmed into it. When you sold the car presumably the new owner would have to have the database changed (£££), otherwise you could immediately nick it. Who would change the database, your local garage? A quick cash in hand job, nod and wink could presumably replace the database of a stolen motor thus legitimising it. There are so many ways in which this is *not* the right answer to a fairly trivial problem, and *is* an appalling intrusion into everyone's life that I don't know where to start.
For fingerprint access to
For fingerprint access to cars, there would have to be an overide mechanism somewhere... for emergency services etc. Once that gets out...
Funny how many cars are broken into via the side window. I wonder how the Mighty Brown is going to tackle that?
Gordon's idea sounds quite
Gordon's idea sounds quite fascist to me.
Not to mention that if
Not to mention that if anyone is mad enough to use something as insecure as a fingerprint to secure a valuable item like a car then it can quite easily be done without the need for £11,000,000,000 worth of centralised snooping database.
And there's always the easy
And there's always the easy way to steal a fingerprint authenticated car:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4396831.stm
Here's something that works
Here's something that works on a Sony Microvault 128MB fingerprint access protected USB flash memory stick.
Cover you finger with silcone sealant (yeah the bathroom stuff). When dry remove your inverted fingerprint and coat it well with machine oil (3-in-1 works well) remove excess with bog roll. Cover that with more silcone sealant and carefully remove when dry. Apply to your bio-metrically secured Sony Microvault. Hey presto!
Admittedly it must be shit cos they only cost 50quid.
There's also the trick of
There's also the trick of cupping your hands round the sensor and breathing on it - your breath will condense on the fingerprint left by the previous user. As the condensation evaporates, it briefly reaches just the right contrast and hey presto.
The Guardian has picked up
The Guardian has picked up on the story: