CIO Jury: IT leaders slam national ID card plans
Online computer industry magazine silicon.com has a “Chief Information Officer Jury pool” of senior IT leaders from both the public and private sectors. Twelve of these jurors were asked to pass judgement on the technical feasibility of the government’s ID cards plan:
We asked silicon.com’s CIO Jury user panel of leading UK IT chiefs to put aside any civil liberties and privacy issues and judge the technological aspects of the government’s plans.
The result was an overwhelming panning for the ID card scheme with 10 of the 12 CIOs saying they had concerns about the robustness of the technology to be used on that scale and the ability of the government to execute the scheme successfully.
Individual comments left no room for doubt:
John Odell, group IT director at the BBA Group, described it as a “20-year fee-fest” for many IT suppliers while Chris Broad, head of information systems and technology at the UK Atomic Energy Association (UKAEA) raised concerns about the scope of the ID card scheme growing out of control.
“This project is growing arms and legs, the cost is not stable – it looks like a failure,” he said.
It’s noticeable that IT experts who’ve studied the ID card proposals but don’t have a vested interest are amongst the scheme’s most vehement critics.
