Digital ID for every adult is not progress. It is the end of a free society dressed up as convenience.
I am a cyber security specialist. This is my take.
They are selling it as a fix for illegal migration. That is bollocks.
We spend hundreds of billions a year on cyber security and yet the volume of breaches is breaking records. The threat is growing faster than the spend.
Digital ID will not stop boats. It will not stop trafficking gangs. It will not fix a broken border.
Criminals will work around it.
Honest citizens will pay the price.
It builds giant data banks that track where you go, what you buy, what you read and who you speak to.
It links your identity to every checkpoint in daily life.
One breach and your life is exposed.
Look at Jaguar Land Rover and the airports in recent weeks. Now imagine that at national scale on an ID system tied to everything you need to live your daily life.
Here is the risk that ministers will not admit.
Ransomware seeded through a supplier or an insider:
It lies quiet for months. It rolls through the backups. On trigger day the register and the recovery sets are both encrypted.
Payments fail. Health and benefits stall. Borders slow. Citizens are frozen out until a ransom is paid or the state rebuilds from scratch.
Centralise identity and you centralise failure.
Do not fall for the pitch.
Function creep is certain. It starts as login.
It becomes access to money, travel, speech and public services.
It turns rights into permissions controlled by the state and its contractors.
It creates a single point of failure for criminals, insiders and hostile states to target.
It will punish the elderly, the poor and anyone who is not always online.
It will centralise risk and outsource blame.
It will not stop fraud.
It will not stop illegal migration.
It will build the machinery for a social credit system by stealth.
If ministers cared about the border, they would enforce current laws, resource patrols and processing, close loopholes and remove those with no right to stay.
You do not need a national ID to do any of that.
We scrapped ID cards in 2010 for a reason.
Britain does not need a central register to prove age or status.
Yes to privacy first proofs. No to a database state.
Aidan O'Brien on Jan Brueghel: "We thought he was probably the biggest certainty ever for the Melbourne Cup last year."
The trainer explains the options now for his Coronation Cup winner but categorically rules out heading Down Under @LydiaHislop
@JonasLeng@BarstewardsThe Given the way the game is going in the UK, would you ever/would you have ever (if younger with less commitments) consider moving to the likes of Aus to punt over there instead?
@jamesaknight No one would have even mentioned the whip usage in that race if not for this rule and now to try appease people who don’t like and never will like racing we are all left to deal with absolute shower of a rule they’ve brought in that helps neither bookmaker or punters.
@ChrisPoole___@PuntingWinners The fact the stewards at the track can’t be trusted to chuck one out now and we have to wait 3 full days to do it is ludicrous for an ‘elite’ sport.
@inglisdrev82 Genuinely, what is the point of the stewards at the track if they can’t count to 10 there and have to wait for someone on Tuesday to do it. Absolutely backwards as an ‘elite’ sport.
@LauraKingDXB Last year was because of ITV's rights to the FA Cup final? Would imagine those in racing would rather go early & get on ITV1 rather than the major classic be shoved on to ITV3/4 and compete with a Manchester Derby Cup final at the same time. Racing needs to adapt around football.
@pigeon_island If you're able to go regularly the Go Racing In Yorkshire season ticket seems great value considering Ebor, St Leger etc all included.
https://t.co/KZnDdinCQd
@tony_calvin For the potential sums that are involved it’s surprising (and worrying) most online bookmaker accounts don’t seem to have the option to add two factor authentication to your account.
Following Frank Lampard’s 5th straight loss since returning to Chelsea on an interim basis, can I just remind you of Richard Keys’ take from the 15th of April?
“Is it because he rides a skateboard?”