IT: UK Can't Read Its Own ID Cards

[Bob Hubbard]

IT: UK Can't Read Its Own ID Cards on Thursday February 05, @04:11AM

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday February 05, @04:11AM
from the forest-for-the-trees dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Despite the introduction of ID cards last November, it has emerged that Britain has no readers that are able to read the cards' microchips, which contain the person's fingerprints and other biometric information. With cops and border guards unable to use the cards to check a person's identity, critics are calling the £4.7bn scheme 'farcical' and a 'waste of time.'"
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[Tez3]

What ID cards? Theres no ID card scheme here yet.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I dunno.

The news comes in spite of the first ID cards being issued to foreign nationals in November last year, with the IPS expecting to issue 50,000 ID cards by April this year.

Maybe its something issued to non UK citizens who are sticking around for a it, not just visiting?

 

[Tez3]

Most of them are illegal lol, the legal ones all have passports and visas so don't need ID cards.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

RFID chips in the visas? I know the US has been talking about adding them, evven though they're reportedly easily hacked.

 

[Tez3]

There's been big arguments about carrying ID here, many countries in Europe do and many of us carry ID here but others argue against it. I find ID useful but then being ex service I'm used to carrying ID. Some people find it a breach of privacy others think it will help as we have so many illegal immigrants it could help get rid of them. Of course though anything can be counterfeited.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I'm looking for more info on this from my usual UK tech sources. I'll post if I find something more.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

As promised:

UK gov unleashes biometric IDs

£4.7bn for cards. £0 for card readers
By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco • Get more from this author
Posted in Government, 7th February 2009 01:09 GMT
Whitepaper: Rethink Virtualization in Business Terms
The British Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has spent £4.7bn ($6.6bn) on its new biometric ID card system. But it has not established a timeline for a card-reader rollout.
Without the necessary card readers, the biometric information such as fingerprint scans stored in the cards is inaccessible and therefore useless for ID verification.
In a statement released on January 29, the IPS reiterated its schedule for releasing the cards, beginning with over 50,000 foreign nationals by this April, then airport workers in the fall of 2009, and leading up to full availability in 2011 and 2012 "to the wider population on an entirely voluntary basis."

Full Story http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/07/ips_card_readers/