[LINK] Smart card 'vulnerable to data theft'
Bernard Robertson-Dunn
brd at iimetro.com.au
Fri Nov 10 07:01:19 AEDT 2006
Smart card 'vulnerable to data theft'
By Simon Kirby
November 09, 2006
news.com
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20730551-29277,00.html
THE proposed smart card will reduce each Australian to a number and
expose personal data to abuse, Labor says.
Opposition human services spokesman Kelvin Thomson today criticised the
micro-chipped access card as having data security flaws, leaving it open
to abuse from bureaucrats and identity thieves.
The new card would replace the Medicare card and about 16 other cards
needed to obtain social security benefits.
The card will be issued by the Government but its contents – which will
be checked for accuracy each time it is used – will be the
responsibility of the card-holder, it was announced yesterday.
Mr Thomson said Labor welcomed efforts to cut down on Medicare,
Centrelink and tax fraud, and reduce costs by streamlining services.
He questioned, though, the Government's decision to ignore its
independent privacy taskforce's recommendations to display neither
digitised signature nor number on the card.
Mr Thomson disputed Human Services Minister Joe Hockey's assertion that
a visible number would make it easier for card holders to use telephone
and online services.
"It may well do, but make no mistake, they're turning you into a number,
a unique identifier," Mr Thomson said in an address to a Sydney forum
tonight.
The Access Card Consumer and Privacy Taskforce said in its report the
increased fraud risk associated with a visible card number "outweighed
some of the advantages for government administration and user convenience".
Mr Thomson took issue with the Government's claim that legal ownership
of the card would be just like owning a car. He said legislation
concerning the card would tightly control what could be done with it.
"You can sell a car, you can paint a car a different colour, you can
destroy a car," Mr Thomson said.
"Try doing those things with a smart card and see how you go.
"The legislation will prescribe what is and isn't on the card, and it
will tell you and everyone else how it may or may not be used."
The Government has refused to release an independent assessment of the
impact of the card on privacy and only partially published the business
case study.
Mr Thomson said it was not enough for the Government to ask the public
to simply trust it.
"The Government's claim that the smart card will save us $300 million a
year in social security and Medicare fraud can't simply be taken at face
value," he said.
"We need to see hard evidence of this. So far it has not been forthcoming."
--
Regards
brd
Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au
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