Julie with a B

Tuesday, May 10, 2005
 
Federal ID - not the answer to the problems and a big personal liability
OK, now let's revisit the concept of a huge database with all of the Federal ID information in it. It's accessable by "those who need to know".

"Internet Attack Called Broad and Long Lasting by Investigators"

The incident seemed alarming enough: a breach of a Cisco Systems network in which an intruder seized programming instructions for many of the computers that control the flow of the Internet.
Now federal officials and computer security investigators have acknowledged that the Cisco break-in last year was only part of a more extensive operation - involving a single intruder or a small band, apparently based in Europe - in which thousands of computer systems were similarly penetrated.
Investigators in the United States and Europe say they have spent almost a year pursuing the case involving attacks on computer systems serving the American military, NASA and research laboratories. "

. . . . "Government investigators and other computer experts sometimes watched helplessly while monitoring the activity, unable to secure some systems as quickly as others were found compromised. "

" . . . The intrusions were first publicly reported in April 2004 when several of the nation's supercomputer laboratories acknowledged break-ins into computers connected to the TeraGrid, a high-speed data network serving those labs, which conduct unclassified research into a range of scientific problems."

At the moment all of your personal information is in some bunch of databases somewhere. You can count on that. But it is not centrally connected to a number. Note that insurance companies and other insitutions have now been banned from using your social security number as a "member number". Thereby preventing someone from finding your insurance card in the wallet they stole from you, would not have access to your social security number and be able to set up false credit cards and other accounts in your name.

Now imagine all these databases connected by your Federal ID number. Are the alarm bells going off yet?

Yes, its good to have verification of who you are when voting. . . . so tighten up the requirements for voter registration!

Yes, its good to know who is illegally in the country. So go after those on expired visas, tighten up the borders, give Immigration & Naturalization Services the personnel and the budget to get the job done.

The Federal ID is NOT a quick fix for these issues.

- posted by JulieB @ 12:15 PM
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