Sign in / up

* Posts by Tim O'Tay

3 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Jun 2009

Masked passwords must go

Tim O'Tay
FAIL

Security Fail

Type your comment here — plain text only, no HTML

0 0

So what we do when ID Cards 1.0 finally dies?

Tim O'Tay

Re: big brother? I see no link

You comment about utility bills is spot on, its totally crazy policy. I can liken it also to 'sending a fax on letter headed paper to authorise domain transfers!' Or having return to the missed parcel collection office with 'a company letter head', which a) i could have printed myself b) the clown on the desk wouldnt even know what the 'real' letter head looked like anyway!

But your blinkered view on what Big Brother state implies does actually worries me. If you introduce the means to track people, then even if originally nothing is implemented, then by god sure as eggs is eggs, in the future the data will start being stored and analysed. The whole point about objecting to ID cards is to kill the possibility at the root. Just like the laws being passed, its a slow 'creep' that people don't realise its happening/happened until its too late.

If I were you, I'd start brushing up on my Newspeak, doubleplusspeed.

0 0
Tim O'Tay
Thumb Down

There is no solution, stop trying..

This article almost hits the nail on the head, but the general theme of it is that we should still be trying to have an ID system. I hate to repeat old phrases for the sake of it, but 'i am who i am, my identity is me, i dont have to prove my identity to anyone'. There will never be a day when technology if fool-proof and never fails. I would have thought that by now enough blunders and gaffs had be exhibited by Governments and high-profile companies that it was clear we as humans are not capable of looking after large quantities of confidential data that could affect the lives of other human beings. (even parcel delivery systems!)

If a device exists to create a secure system, then shortly afterwards a device will be created to crack or bypass the original. You could cite any number of video and music encryption systems at this point.

Staff will always be corruptible or bribable, and people will always be forced under duress to reveal their personal PIN's or forced to perform and act on behalf of someone else. What I am basically saying is there will always be crime, and the more things you make into 'a criminal offense' the more criminals you will have. (eg, if copyrights didn't exist there would be no such thing as music piracy). What I hope is that one day someone looks back over the course of the last 12 years of Labour and sees hows many things are now illegal that were not before, and realises that just because you don't like something, making it illegal doesn't make it go away.

ID systems will not stop terrorism ( I use that term loosely as the act of distributing terror and fear of a future consequence, is actually quite far removed from the actual act of doing evil). Even if you gave every al-qaeda supporter an ID card, it won't stop them making threats. Making everyone into 'a number/GUID/RFID' to try to weed out the few rotten apples puts everyone's identity at risk of theft.

I personally do not want my actions to be tracked by bigbrother, nor do i care to follow the movements of others. All the IT admins that read this site, surely know all too well how one can become power-crazed. When you are sysadmin it is oh so tempting to spy on other people, and the more power you have, the more you want. That is just the 'government' in a micro environment.

0 0