ID CARD SCHEME

ID Cards Risk Of Fraud

The Independant Scheme Assurance Pannel (ISAP) has admitted in its 2007 annual report that the National ID Card Scheme is at risk from fraud by the people running it. The Government-appointed panel which was set-up to advise the Government on the implementation of ID cards, said the scheme would “aggregate a lot of valuable data”.

They suggested that there would be a risk of administrators abusing the situation, especially if they were offered a lot of money by someone wanting to use the details for criminal activities. One cause for concern by the ISAP was that the government did not have an appropriate way to database personal details.

The main problem was that the data will all be kept in one place, this could make it much easier for mass data loss. To minimise the risk of staff stealing and selling on people’s data, the ISAP said the Government had to monitor individual staff members and how they were using data.

The Identity and Passport Service, the department in charge of the ID Card scheme, said it welcomed the ISPA’s recommendations. It said it would identify the right people to govern the data and work to get a clear view of the relationships between all the data held as well as the relevant legislation and policy.