ID card rollout begins

[Peter Tomlinson]

Roland Perry wrote:
> In article 
> <41A527BBC8410944B9845C00335C1F6C4C17A0@SDCP3CMM345.Poise.HomeOffice.Loca
> l>, Watkin Simon <Simon.Watkin@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk> writes
>> "The Home Office has unveiled identity cards to be issued to foreign 
>> residents in the UK."
>>
>> http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news/id-cards-foreign-nationals
> It seems that these ID cards are being positioned as a "UK passport 
> lite" 'easier for the UK Border Agency to verify someone's identity' 
> [than a foreign passport, presumably] so will someone who has been 
> sufficiently checked out to be entitled to one, get any sort of fast 
> track to naturalisation (much of which is working out who you are and 
> why you are entitled to be here in the first place).
>
> And I'm still interested to know if one of these ID cards will allow 
> the holder to travel inside the EU (without their apparently less 
> authoritative foreign passport), but most indications are "no".
>
> Which is a bit of an insult to the UK, having gone to such lengths to 
> only issue them to people who have been positively identified and are 
> definitely allowed to reside in the UK - and all this easier to verify 
> (apparently) than looking at their passport - so why shouldn't the 
> best ID according to the UK Border Agency also be good enough for the 
> French to allow a day trip to Paris?
The problem of checking/verifying foreign passports (at least doing it 
quickly, easily and with confidence) has not yet been solved for 
passports originating in many parts of the world - I read recently that 
the international public key server isn't trusted [1], so some countries 
have exchanged keys via the classic diplomatic bag, and many other 
countries don't yet issue electronic passports. Better to do one 
thorough (sic) check and then issue a local credential that can be 
satisfactorily checked locally.

Peter

[1] I never could see how it could be trusted, but the idea was invented 
by ICAO people who were not permitted by their rules to hire serious 
security people - that was what we were told at the joint ISO/IEC JTC1 
SC17 and ICAO meeting (open to all comers) some years ago.