ID card fears as staff hack into Home Office database
The Evening Standard reports:
[Home] Office staff are hacking into the department’s computers, putting at risk the privacy of 40million people in Britain.
The revelation undermines Government claims that sensitive information being collected for its controversial ID Cards scheme could not fall into criminal hands.
The security breaches occurred at the Identity and Passport Service, which is setting up the National Identity Register to provide access to individuals’ health, financial and police records as part of the £8billion ID card scheme scheduled to begin in 2008.
MPs and technology experts have expressed fears that the national register, which will store sensitive details of more than 40million people, will be a honeypot for hackers and identity thieves. Liberal Democrat
Home Affairs spokesman Mark Hunter said: ‘These revelations show it is folly to put all the precious personal data of our citizens in one place.’
Experts point out that there are certainly more breaches than have been detected:
John Tullett, the technology editor of Secure Computing magazine, said the Home Office would be ‘naive’ to assume that the total of recorded breaches reflects the real number of security violations at the department.
He said: ‘The trend in IT crime is towards “silent” breaches where very competent criminals get into a system and cover their tracks so they can get in again in future, all without the victim ever knowing.’
