yet another blog

Bit of an “own goal” really… certainly won’t help the Government’s campaign to introduce compulsory ID cards…

And some more (re last post)…

Investors details stay in the post - Yahoo News UK
Confidential information on millions of investors is regularly being sent through the post to HM Revenue and Customs without proper security.
publicitéInvestment managers in the City are required to mail personal data on their clients to HMRC on unencrypted computer disks in spite of the recent outcry over the disappearance of two disks containing information on 25 million child benefit claimants.

HMRC said encrypting the data would be a “recipe for chaos”, as it would not be practical to decrypt information from thousands of different financial institutions using different coding programs.

But the body representing individual savings account ISA and personal equity plan PEP managers said the current situation was putting savers at risk of identity fraud.

Richard Saunders, the chief executive of the Investment Management Association IMA has written to HMRC, saying in the light of the child benefit data scandal, the sending of unsecured data could not be allowed to continue.

“We wrote to David Hartnett, the acting head of HMRC, to bring to his attention that our members were sending data in a form that we thought raised concerns about security,” IMA spokeswoman Mona Patel said.

“If they are not very careful with how they handle that data, investors are at risk of identity theft. Were asking HMRC to come up with new ways of sending the data so the individuals details are not compromised. There must be ways of doing this that are not onerous on the Revenue.”

Fund managers, who handle over 8 million accounts with a total value of billions of pounds, are required to send the HMRC the name, address, date of birth and National Insurance number of every one of their investors, along with how much each individual has saved in PEPs and ISAs.

The intention is to stop people exceeding tax allowances on their investment accounts.

A spokeswoman for HMRC said it would be impractical to ask investment managers to encrypt the data before they sent it. “Its not a question of cost, but practicality. You cant have one side having one encoding system and one having another - its a recipe for chaos.”

And we really want to trust the Government to safely and securely implement/maintain a National ID Card scheme?…

Benefit data discs held for year - Yahoo News UK
The Conservatives have branded a report that an ex-contractor at the DWP had two discs with thousands of benefit claimants details for more than a year “disturbing”.
publicitéThe News of the World reports that two discs were found at the home of a former contractor to the Department for Work and Pensions.

The worker discovered that she had inadvertently forgotten to return the discs when her work with the DWP finished - and expressed her surprise that no one had checked that she had done so.

The two new missing discs reveal what kind of benefits the people receive. The data on the discs can be accessed by any standard computer and is not encrypted or protected by a password.

The blunder comes days after the Government was forced to admit it had lost the personal details of more than 25 million people in the post.

That crisis was sparked when a junior official at HM Revenue & Customs official in Tyne and Wear sent two unencrypted CDs containing details of child benefit claimants by courier to the National Audit office in London. The discs were not recorded or registered.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling said of the latest blunder: “This is an exceptionally disturbing new development involving highly sensitive personal information.

“The fact that it hasnt been copy protected is further evidence of a cavalier attitude towards data protection in Government departments. Ministers need to explain urgently how they are going to put things right.”

On Saturday it emerged confidential information on millions of investors is regularly being sent through the post to HM Revenue and Customs without proper security.

Investment managers in the City are required to mail personal data on their clients to HMRC on unencrypted computer discs despite the recent outcry.

Whilst I personally don’t have a particular problem with being stopped and questioned by the police regarding my identity and movements I firmly believe this is an extension of police powers that has to be rigorously opposed on principle.

Indeed, it seems to me that much of the anti-terrorist legislation that Blair and his government have introduced is politically motivated and deeply flawed.
Terrorism is a criminal act and, other than extending the powers of the police and the State to control and dictate to the population, I still fail to see how all the new anti-terrorist legislation is that much superior to existing criminal law in dealing with terrorists.

What it has achieved, unquestionably, is a further erosion of civil liberties and human rights and a reversal of many of the principles of Common Law that have been cherished for so long.

And now, with this new piece of proposed legislation, we will move another step closer to a world in which the people serve the State, rather than the State serving the people - serfdom in other words!

Moreover it will undoubtedly feed into the arrogance and authoritarianism that the police are only too willing to demonstrate nowadays.
That such increased powers will be abused by those who disingenuously claim they act by the “consent of the people” goes without saying. Even more worrying though is the virtual certainty that the principal victims of this new power will be those least able to defend or speak out for themselves - the young, the poor, the uneducated, the minority groups etc; and of course all those who stand in opposition to current political trends - the protestors, the demonstrators, the activists.

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AFP - Monday, May 28 04:11 am
uk.news.yahoo.com

LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair Sunday accused courts and parliament of putting the rights of suspects before national security as it emerged that police may get powers to stop and question people in the street.

Writing in The Sunday Times, Blair argued that the disappearance last week of three terror suspects under control orders, a form of house arrest, was due to society’s mixed-up priorities rather than government mistakes.

“The fault is not with our services or, in this instance, with the Home Office (interior ministry). We have chosen as a society to put the civil liberties of the suspect, even if a foreign national, first,” Blair wrote.

“I happen to believe this is misguided and wrong.”

A government proposal to grant police officers powers to stop and question people under anti-terror laws also emerged Sunday to a volley of criticism, with a member of Blair’s own cabinet joining the sceptics.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain, who is running for the Labour party deputy leadership, warned that the move could become “the domestic equivalent of Guantanamo Bay.”

The laws could not be passed before Blair leaves office and hands over to finance minister Gordon Brown at the end of next month.

Shami Chakrabarti, of civil rights campaigners Liberty, accused Blair of “political machismo, a legacy moment.”

“Stopping and questioning anyone you like will backfire because people will be being criminalised,” she said.

The Sunday Times said that anyone who refused to cooperate could be charged with obstructing the police and fined up to 5,000 pounds (7,371 euros, 9,923 dollars).

The measures are currently in place in Northern Ireland and Irish premier Bertie Ahern told Sky News television that it would be “a pity” if the powers, which had been due to be ditched there, were kept on.

Elsewhere, police currently have the power to stop and search individuals on “reasonable grounds for suspicion” that they have committed an offence but have no rights to ask for their identity and movements.

The proposal came after three men went on control orders went on the run Tuesday — Lamine and Ibrahim Adam, aged 26 and 20, and Cerie Bullivant, 24.

The Adams pair are the brothers of Anthony Garcia, 25, who was imprisoned last month for his role in a fertiliser bomb plot aimed at attacking targets in London and across Britain.

Blair’s government stepped up its approach to terrorism after the US attacks on September 11, 2001 and again after four British-born Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 commuters and injured hundreds of others in London on July 7, 2005.

OK, so its a bit late in the day but I’m finally catching up with this issue.

Unaccountably its something I’d not really engaged with - dunno why. Until now, that is. Over the past coupla months there’ve been a spate of articles in the press about this form of intrusive surveillance (mostly against, I’m pleased to note) and, perhaps more than anything else, these have brought the issue to the forefront of my consciousness.

So, as a preliminary skirmish with the topic I decided to do a bit of my own off-the-cuff research. Rather than post the details of that here (together with accompanying pics) I decided to create a dedicated page on the main site.

Check it out: “Say Cheese”…