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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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Cloning of e-passports 'destroys the last shred of ID card credibility' says AM
August 15, 2008 12:00 AM
Welsh Liberal Democrat Social Justice Spokesperson, Peter Black has questioned the viability of the Government's ID card scheme after reports in a national newspaper detailing how it had been able to get a security researcher to clone two of the UK government's new e-passports which contain allegedly 'fake proof' microchips.
Mr. Black said:
"The researcher was able to clone these two passports in less than an hour using his own software and a commercially-available card reader; replacing the real identities on them with fake ones.
"Labour's ID cards will use the same technology. It therefore follows that anybody who can afford £40.00 for the card reader, has their own software and can buy a couple of microchips for a tenner each will be able to clone those too and create a false ID. Not beyond the ability of a hacker in an attic, and certainly not beyond the ability of organised criminal gangs.
"The Welsh Liberal Democrats have said repeatedly that ID cards are a prohibitively expensive solution looking for a problem. This latest report makes it clear that they are not even a solution. It destroys the last shred of ID card credibility.
"We believe that the money would be better spent on more police and intelligence officers to detect and charge terrorist criminals, rather than in indulging Labour's anti-civil liberties agenda to know where we all are and what we are all doing at every hour of the day and night."
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