21/04/2009 by The Daily Male.

Former US VP Dick Cheney has stated that torturing prisoners is justified because it may have yielded some results. Interesting, on that basis then when we have the inquiry into why Bush, Cheney and Blair went to war with a country based on a lie, Dick will be happy to be tied down to a plank and have water poured onto his face thus simulating drowning. We can repeat this “interrogation” hundreds of times, day and night, until the “Iraq Three” confess to starting an illegal war.  Thanks Dick, I like the idea, I can’t wait to see it!

Posted in Politics, Society, Law & Disorder | Print | 1 Comment »

26/03/2009 by The Daily Male.

I hereby announce to the world, or at least the small part of it that reads this blog, that I refuse to refer to Fred Goodwin as Sir. Fred Goodwin, the man who presided over the worst corporate failure in our history as the boss of RBS received his honour some time ago, but to me the moniker “Sir” implies a man of Honour, Integrity and Decency, none of which this man has. It is time we and the press dropped the Sir, he doesn’t deserve it.

Whilst I am on the topic of Fred, I see he got his windows smashed by a group of vigilantes this week. Now, this is a very stupid thing to do, all this does is terrorise his poor wife and kids and they have done nothing to deserve that, that is the trouble with vigilantes is they just create more innocent victims. I am not surprised though considering some of the comments made by some government ministers. Harriet Harman said that “he [Fred] will be judged in the court of public opinion”. Now who is the judge and jury in that court, how is a verdict made and what is the punishment, it sounds like a call to vigilanteism to me.

Posted in Politics, Society, Law & Disorder | Print | 1 Comment »

12/03/2009 by The Daily Male.

You may ask what gives me the right to pontificate about this, well, I have over 22 years and an IT professional and have worked with data and database in many industries and for many clients. I understand Data and Data Security in a way that makes most people want to kill themselves. The ID card system as defined by the government is flawed in so many ways but they spin the truth and lie about the benefits to try to deceive the public about the benefits of the system. In this article I hope I can explain in “Non techy” terms why the ID card scheme must be stopped.

Note: these are my thoughts alone and do not reflect any views or opinions of the no2id campaign group.

10. It won’t stop terrorism. Honestly, how could it, home grown terrorists will have legitimate ID cards and I am sure when they apply for one they will not state that their ambition is “… to bring down the state and install sharia law through random acts of mindless violence”. Foreign terrorists will not need an ID card so it can not help there.

9. It won’t stop organised crime. In fact the ID card will be just another tool of the trade of organised criminals. They will target ways to get their hands on ID cards or create fake ones in order to make money and continue their criminal activities.

8. It won’t stop ID theft. Far from it, in fact it may make things worse. If a criminal can duplicate your ID and falsify the electronic details they will have a piece of id that will make them unchallengingly you. You may argue that this is impossible because your details are also stored on a central register but as the system will hardly ever challenge the central data and will generally just check your identity against the data held on the card they will be able to fake your identity with more certainty.

7. It is not secure Part I. The government talks a lot about data security (at the same times as they lose millions of records of our private data) without actually explaining what that actually means. Let me try to explain, without sending you to sleep, why the system is insecure. Your most private and sensitive data will be copied from the secure central database onto a small plastic data chip card. The data on this card will be encrypted using a single key system, similar to the way your data is stored on a chip and pin card.  As you may or may not know the chip and pin algorithm has been cracked and because all the cards use the same algorithm that once you have cracked it once the  data on ALL the cards is accessible. The same will be true of ID cards, the criminal fraternity will be working overtime to crack the algorithm, once it is done the whole ID card system is compromised, the only solution is to re encrypt all the cards or re issue new cards, but any old cards will be compromised and there will be millions of them, how do you ensure these old cards are destroyed? and more importantly who is going to pay to issue all these new cards and dispose of the old ones? yes, you guessed it, us. And if you think it is impossible to break these codes then read on and I will explain how it can be done.

6 It is not secure Part II. So how do you crack a secure encryption system? well there are many ways, but the most important starting point is to have an example of encrypted data, well that is easy as there will be millions of them out there, the ID card itself. Next it would help if you have access to some device that decrypts the data, a sort of enigma machine if you will. Well again there will be thousands of them, the ID card readers. The first chip and pin decryption scams were achieved by modifying the hand held chip and pin readers. The next thing that would help would be “an inside man”. This may seem a bit far fetched but remember all these ID card readers will have to be manufactured by outside agencies and will almost certainly be made in China. There will be a lot of people in the manufacturing chain that will have access to the encryption algorithm data, I wonder how much it would cost to bribe or extort the data from a Chinese manufacturer. And remember, because this is a single key system (ie each card uses the same key to decrypt it) once one cards system is cracked, all cards are accessible. Even without the inside man it is likely the system will be cracked in a few years maybe only a few months, ask Sky TV how often they have to issue new viewing cards because hackers have broken the encryption systems.

5. It costs so much, maybe as much as 15 billion to create and maintain the system. Let me write that out in full to make it clear £15,000,000,000.00 . And if you lose your card you will HAVE to buy another at a cost of £40 or more. and if you move house you will have to tell the ID register and have a new card issued, more cost. Get married or change name, new card, more cost. Fail to do so will be a criminal offence with a hefty fine.

4. It isn’t voluntary. Oh yes it is, I hear you cry, OH NO IT ISN’T I reply in true pantomime style. The government say it is voluntary but in truth other, non ID card laws, are being created to give the police the right to demand to see your ID at any time thus enforcing compulsion via the back door.

3. It won’t stop benefit fraud. No, not even this, most benefit fraudsters do not lie about their identity but instead lie about their circumstances, how many kids they have, if they are working, if they are disabled, none of this will be stopped with the ID card.

2. It breaches every single rule of good Data Protection. You never, ever, ever, and I can not stress this enough, ever allow data to be copied from a secure central database onto a removable data store (be it card, cd, chip stick etc) unless you absolutely have to. Once data had be removed from the central store it is no longer secure, even if it is encrypted. When the data is still in the central database, you can control it, see who is accessing it, check that it is still accurate. Once the data is removed it is lost, you can  not know who has it, what it says and what it is being used for. It is no coincidence that ALL the embarrassing data loses that the government have committed over the years have ALL happened because data was taken from a secure central database and placed on a removable media. So what do the government propose to do, send out this data on millions of plastic chip cards, unbelievable!

And the big number 1, THE CARD IS THE WEAK LINK. Why have a card with a copy of my thumb print or retina scan on it when I pretty much always have my thumb and eye with me at all times. If the police want to check my ID then they can scan my thumb print, send the data to the central data along with my name and the central system can confirm my identity, simple, no need for any sensitive data to have ever left the database, WHAT IS THE BLOODY POINT OF THE ID CARD AND ALL THOSE OFFLINE READER MACHINES? Having a central database of all my data is bad enough and totally unnecessary in my opinion, but to then send all that data out via the post is like setting off a huge data bomb, it is utterly and totally moronic and doomed to failure.

Posted in Privicy, Technology, ID Cards, Society, Law & Disorder | Print | 1 Comment »

04/03/2009 by The Daily Male.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/7919011.stm 

I guess the News of the World and other tabloids must be happy this week to see that a jury found Daniel Williams not guilty of murder for the killing of ex policeman Geoffrey Harries. This has to be a dark day indeed for British justice, a man can take a knife to a mans house after making repeated threats and during a struggle stab the victim 20 times. This is apparently okay as long as the victim is suspected of being a “Peado” as Williams had said. I find it amazing that any decent person can find a self defense justification for stabbing a man 20 times? I have to draw the opinion that this jury who must have consisted of several NOTW readers had judged that Harries had “had it coming” so Williams was performing some public service by killing this man. I look forward to NOTWs new “Stab A Peado” campaign to kick off in the next few weeks…

 So here is an idea, if there is someone you want to murder but need to get away with it, simply plant a few indecent pictures on his computer, inform the police so he is charged and awaits trial, then set up a fight where you can repeatedly stab him to death. Then sit back and wait for a stupid and cowardly jury to let you off Scott free… no need for 007 here, we can all manufacture our licence to kill.

Posted in Law & Disorder | Print | No Comments »