News: More Details on ID Card Databases - Ministers Seeking Advice from Industry on Security

The Register is reporting this morning that the Identity minister has announced that UK ID Card scheme is to have 3 different databases: "There is the one that holds the fingerprints and facial image, the biometric data, and then the other information which is broadly what is on your passport already and the third bit is the one that links the two,"

The announcement was made at a meeting organised by the Social Market Foundation. Meg Hillier, the minister, also revealed that her department is still researching how best to to make remote use of ID Cards work.

An example of an ID card reader, visually like a larger version of a card reader used by retailers, was available at the conference. Hillier said that the government "needed to do more work on this" and was keen to hear the views of industry about how this will work, particularly about security.

News: UK ID Card Design and New ID Commissioner Unveiled

We can now see what UK ID cards will look like. There is an interesting post at Spy Blog asking some important questions:

Will the ID Card number be randomly allocated, or will it betray information about the ID Card controllee, through batch sequences, which can also help to break the cryptographic protections on the Contactless / RFID chip, just as happened with the Netherlands biometric passport ?

The post at Spy Blog also criticises the limitations of the powers of the new ID Commissioner, Sir Joseph Pilling:

The National Identity Scheme Commissioner is specifically forbidden by the
terms of reference which appoint him under the Identity Cards Act 2006 section 22 Appointment of National Identity Scheme Commissioner to look into the following activities, which are exactly the secret activities which are the most likely to abuse the National Identity Register, and which therefore should be scrutinised the most:

(4) The matters to be kept under review by the Commissioner do not
include--
(a) the exercise of powers which under this Act are exercisable by
statutory instrument or by statutory rule for the purposes of the Statutory
Rules (Northern Ireland) Order 1979 (S.I. 1979/1573 (N.I. 12));
(b) appeals against civil penalties;
(c) the operation of so much of this Act or of any
subordinate legislation as imposes or relates to criminal offences;
(d) the provision of information to the Director-General of the Security Service, the
Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service or the Director of the Government Communications Headquarters;
(e) the provision to another member of the
intelligence services, in accordance with regulations under section 21(5), of
information that may be provided to that Director-General, Chief or Director;
(f) the exercise by the Secretary of State of his powers under
section 38; or
(g) arrangements made for the purposes of anything mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (f).

News: UK Government Plans to Link ID Cards to Criminal Records

From Slashdot: Previously Government Ministers had denied that the ID database would contain criminal records, but have now admitted to a feasibility study on linking the National Identity Database to the Criminal Records Bureau. In a written statment they said that:

This research is still in the early stages of feasibility and several options are being considered as part of this work, including options for the use of ID card data and fingerprints. The CRB is not considering the use of other biometrics at this stage,