Identity card cost 'may be cut'
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The costs of the ID cards scheme can be cut "quite substantially" by using existing databases, says a minister.
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Count them in, count them out, count them all about... Immigration Minister Liam Byrne this week unveiled - to a certain amount of derision - his vision of the ID Card scheme as some sort of 21st Century equivalent of the 19th Century railway network or the 20th Century national electricity grid. It will be pervasive, and in 20 years time it will be a great British institution, "part of the fabric of British life."â¦
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A controversial scheme for national identity cards has been approved by the British House of Commons.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun mailing claim forms to more than 1,400 identity theft victims who spent money to clear up identity-theft problems due to a security breach at data broker ChoicePoint announced in early 2005. The FTC began mailing claim forms to victims, identified with the help of law enforcement agencies, on Wednesday. The FTC has also created a Web site where consumers who do not receive a claims form can download one and obtain information about the claims process. In January, the FTC and ChoicePoint reached a settlementÂ requiring the company to payÂ $5 millionÂ to be used to reimburse consumers for expenses caused by the data breach. ChoicePoint also agreed to pay a $10 million fine. In February 2005, ChoicePoint announced that scammers had set up bogus businesses and contracted with the company to gainÂ access to the personal informationÂ of 145,000 U.S. residents. The company, which found out about the breach in September 2004, later said the number of people whose information was lost in the breach was 163,000. Consumers who receive a letter and have out-of-pocket expenses due to identity theft caused by the ChoicePoint security breach should submit claims promptly; the FTC needs claims to be postmarked by Feb. 4, 2007 for them to be considered. Consumers who do not receive a letter, but who believe that they have identity theft-related expenses due to this incident, may submit a claim by completing the form available on the FTCâs Web site or by calling 1-888-884-8772. The amount applicants receive will depend on a number of factors, including the total number and amount of claims that the agency receives, the FTC said. ChoicePoint issued a short notice about the FTC reimbursement program. "Even though ChoicePoint agreed to create a $5 million fund to assist potentially affected consumers, ChoicePoint has no role in deciding who will receive the money or the criteria used by the FTC to distribute the money," the company said in a statement.
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Trust and inclusion foregrounded in desperate rescue plan Teachers and 16 year olds are the favoured 'soft targets' for the redesigned ID card scheme rollout, according to an Identity &amp; Passport Service planning document seen by The Register. As suggested in leaks last weekend, IPS now plans to soft-pedal fingerprints and - astoundingly - it seems on the point of abandoning the notion of forcing ID cards onto the public via passport renewals.â¦
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New Hampshire on Thursday joined a growing list of states to reject a controversial U.S. identification card that opponents say will cost billions of dollars to administer and present a risk to privacy.
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Ooh, too risky... Experienced risk management professionals seem reluctant, for some strange reason, to sign up with the Identity &amp; Passport Service for a job risk-managing the ID cards programme. Too risky? Well, if that's what they reckon, they're the people you'd expect to know.â¦
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The UK could "sleepwalk into a surveillance society" as a result of ID cards, the Information commissioner has warned. Send us your views.
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Gift cards have popular with gift givers, but many arenât aware that they come packed with hidden fees that can nibble away at the initial value of the cards.
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Gimme shelter US identity theft losses dropped 11.5 per cent last year to $49.3bn, according to a new study.â¦
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Debix, the Identity Protection Network, today announced that it will  offer Identity Protection Services for three years to the victims of the  UCLA security breach for $99. Details of the offer are available at http://www.debix.com/UCLA.
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(InfoWorld) - Most large data breaches don't appear to lead to identity theft, and proposals that would require companies to notify customers of most breaches may lead to increased costs without significant benefits, says a report from a U.S. government agency released Thursday. The report, from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), said only four of the 24 largest data breaches between January 2000 and June 2005 appear to have resulted in identity fraud. Wide-ranging data breach notification laws that would require nearly all breaches to be reported could lead to notifications that "present little or no risk, perhaps leading consumers to disregard notices altogether," the report said. While a breach notification law would have several benefits, a law that requires notification for nearly all breaches could also create significant costs for businesses, the report added. The U.S. Congress is currently considering several breach notification bills, including some that would require notification for nearly all breaches. Instead, Congress may want to consider a notification rule based on the potential for the risk of ID theft, the report said. The U.S. President's Identity Theft Task Force has recommended a national standard for determining when government agencies and private companies should report breaches, the report pointed out. A risk-based standard "could avoid undue burden on organizations and unnecessary and counterproductive notifications of breaches that present little risk," the report said. A data breach law would create costs for businesses, including the cost of developing incident response plans and notifying customers, the report said. While it's difficult to determine costs, a Ponemon Institute study in 2006 found that 31 companies with breaches incurred an average cost of $1.4 million per breach for notifying customers, staffing call centers, paying legal fees, and other expenses, the report said. The GAO researched 24 large data breaches reported in the media between 2000 and 2005, and found that 18 of them had no ID theft or fraud identified. Three of the breaches, at CardSystems Solutions, DSW, and CD Universe, had reports of fraud associated with existing customer accounts. And a breach at ChoicePoint had reports of unauthorized new accounts opened. In the remaining two breaches, GAO was unable to determine if there had been ID fraud. It's difficult to track ID theft resulting from data breaches, the report said. In some cases, thieves don't attempt to use the data until a year or more after the breach, the report said. A breach notification law could be beneficial because it would encourage organizations to improve data security, the report said. "Care is needed in defining appropriate criteria for data breaches that merit notification," the report said. "Because breaches vary in the risk they present, and because most breaches have not resulted in detected incidents of identity theft, a notification that is risk based appears appropriate." Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a security research and training company in Maryland, praised the report, saying some in Congress have focused too much on data breaches. Some lawmakers have "dropped the ball on the far more important area of attack-based defenses," he said. The report is important because it gives Congress more information about data breaches, added Thomas Lenard, senior fellow and acting president at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank. "Itâs very good to have more data on this issue," he said. "[The report] reinforces my view that we should only adopt new regulations in this area if it can be shown that their benefits are greater than their costs."
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Calculate the cost before borrowing cash from your credit card.
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Denies print register drop report The Identity and Passport Service has denied that fingerprints could be dropped from the National Identity Register.â¦
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Serious doubts are raised on the accuracy of a new ID system being introduced on new UK passports next year.
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Just in time for the Olympics The British government is delaying the roll out of the national ID card scheme to UK citizens, according to leaked documents obtained by the Tory party.â¦
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Not compulsion - sign here to end the pain... "Various forms of coercion" could be used to accelerate the rollout of ID cards, the idea being that ID cards will remain 'voluntary' for as long as possible, while not having an ID card will become more and more uncomfortable. This, precisely what the government has intended to do all along, is stated baldly in an Identity &amp; Passport Service leak cited by the Sunday People.â¦