[LINK] Smart card 'vulnerable to data theft'

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> 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.

Bernard,

Shouldn't you be declaring an Interest here?

> Thanks to Google...
> 
> SAI Global. Is a risk management standard. It defines a general 
> framework ... AS8015—Corporate. Governance of ICT. Standards Australia ...
> http://www.dcita.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/41311/IT_Security_Governance_CIO_Executive_Summary.pdf
> 
<http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/link/2006-November/070184.html>

> 
> 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."
> 


-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
Phone: 0414-869202
http://www.ramin.com.au/itgovernance
http://www.ramin.com.au/linux
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