Posted by denny on Fri 7 Aug 2009 at 13:16
It's not often I want to say thanks to the Daily Mail, but I was pleased to read their story yesterday about how they managed to clone a UK ID card in 12 minutes and reprogram it to change the details of the holder - including their identity, entitlement to benefits, and 'terrorist status'.
As I watch, Laurie picks up a mobile phone and, using just the handset and a laptop computer, electronically copies the ID card microchip and all its information in a matter of minutes.
He then creates a cloned card, and with a little help from another technology expert, he changes all the information the card contains - the physical details of the bearer, name, fingerprints and so on. And he doesn't stop there.
With a few more keystrokes on his computer, Laurie changes the cloned card so that whereas the original card holder was not entitled to benefits, the cloned chip now reads 'Entitled to benefits'.
As a chilling twist, he adds a message that would be visible to any police officer or security official who scanned the card: 'I am a terrorist - shoot on sight.'
Anybody who thinks these cards are going to do anything other than give the Government an excuse to build a huge database holding the details of everybody out there (well, everybody who's not a terrorist anyway) would do well to think again in the light of this evidence. Criminals will copy and change these cards as they wish, creating many new 'proven' (and therefore trusted) identities to commit their crimes as - maybe one of those identities will be yours?
This article can be found online at the Police State UK website at the following bookmarkable URL:
This article is copyright 2009 denny - please ask for permission to republish or translate.