Home Secretary Charles Clarke last week told a live Channel 4 News debate that there was only a “tiny number of people” in Britain who represented a terrorist threat. Somewhat at odds with previous statements by Tony Blair, amongst others, who would have us believe that the security services are monitoring “hundreds” of terrorist [...]

The BBC reports:
The UK Government has been urged to rethink plans for identity cards by a Church of Scotland committee.

Apparently the Kirk’s Church and Nation Committee said that, alongside the cost, it questioned the idea that:
“if all the good people conform, identify themselves and carry cards, we can restrain the bad people”, dubbing this “simplistic”.
Its [...]

Heise Online reports Data protection officer calls for a moratorium on biometric passports
Yesterday, Germany’s Data Protection Officer Peter Schaar took the occasion of the presentation of the first progress report since he took office in December of 2003 to criticize the German government’s plans to include biometric features in passports this autumn as “premature”. Biometrics, [...]

Speaking about Sir Ian Blair’s recent comments about ID cards, Conservative chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority Richard Barnes told the BBC:
I am aware that he issued a press statement yesterday to explain that he was only restating a position that he had earlier, but I think it is highly inappropriate during a general election [...]

From an article by security expert, Bruce Schneier :
By concentrating on authenticating the individual rather than authenticating the transaction, banks are forced to defend against criminal tactics rather than the crime itself.
Credit cards are a perfect example. Notice how little attention is paid to cardholder authentication. Clerks barely check signatures. People use their cards over [...]