Management of signature keys for government

[Ross Anderson]

An employee of the Evil Empire wrote:

> It seems to me that he's analyzing only the cost and not the benefit of the
> process.   Consider: a very large number of people go to substantially more
> trouble than that described above so that they can obtain a passport. 

So far, to get a passport I've just sent in a form and waited a few weeks

> If the benefit from obtaining a card is comparable (or even significantly
> less) than that from obtaining a passport, the takeup will be high.

If the government tries to make the benefit from owning a `personal signature
card' comparable to that of owning a passport - and they are already talking
about its being a precondition of convenient public access to everything from
your tax file to your medical record - then the political backlash once people
realise what is going on will completely dwarf what we saw yesterday in
London.

The English speaking world has done just fine without ID cards. The civil
service keep on trying to sneak them in but have always lost so far. If the
government is sufficiently asleep, or out of its mind, to let them get away
with this one then they will pay a heavy political price.

Ross