DWP Systems to run ID Cards

[Peter Tomlinson]

Ian Batten wrote:
> I was reminded of this:
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6192419.stm
>
> Key sentence:  ``Now the information will be spread across three 
> existing IT systems, including the Department of Work and Pensions' 
> (DWP) Customer Information Service, which holds national insurance 
> records.''
>
> [[ and can I just tell Apple GUI designers that pasting that in a 
> matching font with the Apple Mail.app involves holding down four keys 
> simultaneously, something which noted GUI counter-example GNU emacs 
> has never needed me to do, and provides me with _two_ reasons to bcc a 
> former colleague ]]
>
> Now I'd not put December 2006 and December 2007 together, but the 
> implication is that one of the key systems for the ID Register will be 
> the system that started the current scandal about porous Government IT 
> Security.  No wonder ID cards are being kicked into the long grass.
>
> ian
>
Not my view at all. The new architecture is about verifying data in the 
DWP register before moving it into the National Identity Register. But 
that could be just a view from one angle, so it may indeed be the case 
that the data physically stays in the DWP database but is linked to 
confirmation data in, for example, an extended passport database. 
Certainly it was the intention to use the DWP's customer service system 
to interface with the citizen. But the NIS procurement process includes 
first a discussion phase, so we don't know what changes will come out of 
that.

One question must be: Is the DWP database secure?

Peter