UK National ID Card Cloned In 12 Minutes

Death Metal writes with this excerpt from Computer Weekly, which casts some doubt on the security of the UK's proposed personal identification credential: "The prospective national ID card was broken and cloned in 12 minutes, the Daily Mail revealed this morning. The newspaper hired computer expert Adam Laurie to test the security that protects the information embedded in the chip on the card. Using a Nokia mobile phone and a laptop computer, Laurie was able to copy the data on a card that is being issued to foreign nationals in minutes."

Comments

Re:Hang on

[krou]

Actually, TFA is a post on Computer Weekly, who read the Daily Mail so you don't have to.

Using a Nokia mobile phone and a laptop computer, Laurie was able to copy the data on a card that is being issued to foreign nationals in minutes.

He then created a cloned card, and with help from another technology expert, changed all the data on the new card. This included the physical details of the bearer, name, fingerprints and other information.

He then rewrote data on the card, reversing the bearer's status from "not entitled to benefits" to "entitled to benefits".

He then added fresh content that would be visible to any police officer or security official who scanned the card, saying, "I am a terrorist - shoot on sight."

So, no, it is actually pretty bloody scary, as they successfully changed the biometrics of the copy.

Re:Outstanding.

[TheRaven64]

Who did the UK Government get to test the security on these cards?

They got quite a competent group of people, as is the policy of the current government. These people issued a report that the cards were insecure and did not solve any problems that actually existed (they actually made some quite interesting recommendations about the problems related to ID that the government could try to solve). Also in keeping with the government's policy (see also: Gower's Report) this advice was completely disregarded. Fortunately, the recent set of expenses scandals kicked the most vocal advocates of the ID card out of the cabinet.