

How the scrapped ID card database will be destroyed - Robin_Message
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11719764

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rlpb
"But 200 computer terminals in five "back offices", where officials processed
applications and ran background checks, will be spared the crusher. Instead,
workers will have to "provide file locations of extracted data" so that the
Home Office team can put together an "audit record of data deletion"."

Seems to me that this is where the compromise will be. Asking "workers" to
"provide file locations of extracted data"? What's the chance that some
locations will be missed? And why do they not already have a registry of all
locations where private data is copied?

Also, it's far easier to compromise a computer (do it remotely over the
internet) then some piece of card scanning hardware (more likely to need
physical access).

~~~
CWuestefeld
Not to mention:

 _But, in another twist, the document also reveals that not all identity data
will be destroyed - some will be kept for the purposes of investigating
fraud._

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epo
Security theatre, and like security theatre at airports it masks the reality
that in all probability nothing of substance is actually happening.

And of course we trust all of these people to get it right and for nothing to
slip through the cracks. The threat is as much about what happened in the past
as what happens now. What guarantees are there that some employee didn't make
their own copy of the data and take it offsite? What about backups?

~~~
iuguy
There's quite a complex set of processes behind the way HM Government systems
are managed. They can't just throw backups away, they have to prove that
they've been disposed of in-line with HMG policy.

As for guarantees, there are no more than there would be that someone at
Google hasn't done that, but what HMG does have is a fairly strong vetting
standard, that these people will be under.

~~~
epo
The 'proof' is just a form being filled in, I doubt there is a government
overseer who does a directory listing and then observes the destruction of
that specific drive.

And none of this theatre can rectify historic breaches.

~~~
iuguy
Where do you get the idea that this is just a case of filling a form in?

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mike-cardwell
The only people who have the ID cards are the ones who volunteered in the
first place. They clearly don't care about their privacy so why bother going
to all this effort?

~~~
JulianMorrison
So that in five years, if Labour wins, they can't just throw the "on" switch.

This is basically poisoning the wells and salting the fields.

~~~
mike-cardwell
I'm totally for getting rid of them. I just don't think they need to go
through all this effort for the sake of people who don't care about their own,
or anyone elses privacy. Just Ebay the machines.

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jrockway
Wow, a government getting rid of an intrusive system? I never thought I'd see
the day.

Next week we're going to hear that they are taking down all the CCTV cameras!

~~~
estel
Somehow, I don't think we will...

