Slashdot Mirror
White House To Drop Details of Cyber ID On Tax Day
BeatTheChip writes "Dept. of Commerce Scry. Gary Locke plans to release solidified details of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace [NSTIC] program starting 11 AM on Tax Day. Technologies and new policies will be demonstrated and discussed to attending press. NSTIC, a federal cyber identity program, drew criticisms earlier this year on initial announcement for similarities to a national identity program. It was deemed 'Real ID for the Internet' by some privacy and civil liberty organizations. NSTIC is a national online authentication program for public use under the oversight of the Dept. of Homeland Security."
Sorry citizen, in compliance with U.S. law, Comcast Cable Broadband now requires that all subscribers identify themselves by their U.S. Internet Identification Number before accessing internet content. Please contact your local office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for more information on how to obtain your U.S. Internet Identification Number. And thank you for choosing Comcast as your broadband provider!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Without TPM this idea is a joke. I think you can see where this is going.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Federal Tax filing date is April 18th this year, not the 15th.
Nobody asked for, or needs this expect maybe the government wanting track citizens and content companies wanting to track "pirates."
I am honestly afraid that this is basically going to turn into an internet driver's license. Imagine if you were required to get government approval in order to read a book? This violates all kinds of freedom of speech provisions. I'll wait to see the details before I make a final judgement, but I much prefer being able to remain effectively anonymous online.
Welcome to City 17. You have chosen or been chosen to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centres...
The government wishes to enhance consumers' privacy by attaching a unique identifier to each and every online transaction? What an excellent example of doublespeak.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
You are about to be tagged and taxed. America owns you.
Because CNN and Fox news wont report it...
And thats because their parent companies want it.
This is someone looking entirely uncool by trying to look cool.
It's drop, as in a Hip Hop artist referring to an album release date as when it's going to drop.
Unfortunately, it only works in the context of a Hip Hop artist releasing an album. In any other context, it reads as, "I'm only this white because the sun doesn't reach my mom's basement."
From the NIST NSTIC link in TFA:
# Private: This new "identity ecosystem" protects your privacy. Credentials share only the amount of personal information necessary for the transaction. You control what personal information is released, and can ensure that your data is not centralized among service providers.
# Voluntary: The identity ecosystem is voluntary. You will still be able to surf the Web, write a blog, participate in an online discussion, and post comments to a wiki anonymously or using a pseudonym. You would choose when to use your trusted ID. When you want stronger identity protection, you use your credential, enabling higher levels of trust and security.
and remove my PCs from internet connectivity before i subject myself to such a heavy handed draconian measure.
goodbye internet, it was fun while it lasted, but the government is here to help which always takes the fun out of things.
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Of course, we will never know how many of the people convicted are the actual criminals, rather than just a victim of a hacker who chose their identity at random.
The real danger is that this is just another form of automated justice. If a log generated by a server somewhere in somebody's cloud says your guilty ... then you're guilty. Period. End of statement. Face it, courts only rarely disregard computer-generated "evidence", although that's likely only because they don't have the mental tools to make a judgement as to the probability of a computer error, so they simply ignore the possibility. I suspect that most people here on Slashdot are like me, in that they certainly would not want their future, their livelihood or their freedom beholden to the reliability and accuracy of somebody's little black box.
What we have here is Man fading in the shadow of the machine. And I don't like it.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
What is ironic is that properly implemented, this system can assure a truly kick-ass privacy ecosystem.
One could base it around a smart card. The private key is stored, and a certificate from a trusted CA (county courthouse) states that this key belongs to this individual.
Then start sticking certificates on the key. The user can determine who gets to see the certificates, and who doesn't.
Carded at the bar? The bar doesn't need to know the DOB. The bar finds a certificate stating that this person is over 21 years of age, signed by the state. That is good enough evidence for legal purposes to start slinging the drinks. The bar is legally covered, and the patron does not have to show when they were born.
Criminal record? The potential employer sees a certificate from NCIC stating the bearer has zero crimes on his/her rap sheet. The employer checks to see if this cert was revoked, and it hasn't been. So, even without looking up the user in a database, there is legal proof of no felonies present.
Degree from accredited institution? The employer finds a cert from Miskatonic University stating the person has graduated and has a B. S. Going up the cert chain, the university has a certificate from an accreditor stating that they are in good standing.
Credit report? Vinny's Used Cars gets a certificate from Experion that the person is in the top tier of credit, and no other details are handed out.
Of course, with keys and an active CRL mechanism, if someone was convicted, the criminal record cert stating there is no record would be revoked, or it can be a SLC that is pulled from a certificate server, with an expiration duration of minutes to hours.
I have hopes... if done right, a good smart card would help privacy and security. However, if done wrong, it would rain down hell on anyone in the US.
What we don't need is a centralized ID system - that's a recipe for all kinds of fraud of other sorts of abuse (like the recent story about how DVR commercial viewing records are correlated with grocery purchases in order to better target you for advertising).
If the government insists on getting involved in ID infrastructure, then they ought to be providing a means for distributed identification. Define a standardized system that promotes multiple, independent IDs that are domain specific. For example, one ID for facebook, another ID for your bank, another ID for your car registration, a different ID for the tax records on property like your house.
Go ahead and define a protocol for handling the identification and authentication transactions, but require taht each party (both users and service providers) keep the database of IDs on their own systems - not off in some massive cross-referenced database, federal or otherwise.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
It's slang, much like your awful use of "fail."
You're absolutely wrong. It is a Republic, a representational government. If you look at the US congress you see the US citizenry. Weak, corrupt, dishonest, self centered, exactly like the people they represent. Don't leave out ignorant and greedy either. I guess you could call it an idiocracy. I looked at the last presidential election with despair. Obama and Biden vs. McCain and Palin. It makes me sick to think about it even now. This is the best either party has to offer us. The best they have. Think on that. Then turn on the TV and watch all the mental drivel that passes for entertainment. People actually watch that stuff. It's depressing.
why aren't citizens revolting over this?
Because our government is revolting enough?
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
That's because only republicans and "right-wingers" and people belonging to the "tea party" can be targeted for this. Remember, Obama ... better than Bush. Hahaha right...you guys are fucked. You bought into the whole Trudeau style charm and are taking it like a champ now.
Om, nomnomnom...
Have you ever worked in the Smart Card or Cert industries? This has never been done right, and never will be, due to a reliance on people.
You have to trust that everyone has the certs they're supposed to have, and that no errors in cert deployment happened (wrong cert revoked, inappropriate cert given out, etc). Then there's theft of smart cards, cracking of cards for the private key, control over the card readers (how does the user determine who sees what certs when the person can't even read the data on their card without a reaader -- and not all readers are created equal).
Think of the recent news items where a CA was issuing certificates to an untrusted party, and where MOST CAs were issuing certs for inappropriate zones.
Personally, having dealt with this technology in-depth for over 10 years, I'd rather trust a web of trust (real people) than a CA chain. The CA chain can augment, but it should NEVER replace.