[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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