McNealy Calls for National ID Card Too 615
Syre writes: "Well McNealy's at it again calling for a national ID card (a smart card powered by Java, anyone?)." So let's get this straight: Oracle wants a national ID card powered by Oracle. Sun wants a national ID card powered by Java. (Even though the U.S. already has a national ID card, since the states are in the process of linking their driver's license databases together.) Is there any company that doesn't want to exploit a tragedy for financial gain? And didn't each and every one of the hijackers present valid ID?
Terriorist ID's (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Driver's Licenses (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What are the exact criteria? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Oracle's plan (Score:2, Informative)
How do you know this? Why do people assume that this ID card scheme would not be comprimised (read counterfit) ?
In any sort of ID there will be fakes out there.
And last, but not least, the plan for global ID proposed by Larry Ellison should have been on voluntary basis to make things for you convenient and avoid these long and thorough checks of identity that will definitely appear on different wanna-be-secure locations like airports.
1. If it's voluntary, it's useless
Will they run two airplanes for those of us who would opt-out? If not, you will still be waiting on the plane for us to check in, so your not waiting in line idea won't work. If they will run two planes, that's insane, airlines are strapped for cash now, I doubt they could double the planes with half the people.
2. Conveniency breeds loss of rights
The first thing that will happen in an opt-in for convenience world is that it will soon NOT BE opt-in, it will be maditory. The US Social Security number was designed for your retirement, now it's used for EVERYTHING. I can remember when you weren't supposed to give you number out to anyone. Now I have to print it on checks, give that number to banks, etc. They don't need that number, but it sure is convienent. Now, look how common ID theft is now, all you need is a persons address and SSN and you own them.
3. National ID cards will not stop people coming in from the outside (passports) and we will not always catch people with fake passports.
4. Global ID card would be impossible. Require them to enter the US? I doubt it. We already require passports.
Re:What are the exact criteria? (Score:3, Informative)
I do not believe this is not true.
According to this [ssa.gov] document, several institutions are allowed to require or request your SSN.
Furthermore, the SSA states,
Re:Driver's Licenses (Score:3, Informative)
Well, you're right about the last one, and right that a Massachusetts license is legal, but wrong about the rest.
Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 138, Section 34B [state.ma.us]:
"Any licensee, or agent or employee thereof, under this chapter who reasonably relies on such a liquor purchase identification card or motor vehicle license issued pursuant to section eight of chapter ninety, or on a valid passport issued by the United States government, or by the government, recognized by the United States government, of a foreign country, or a valid United States issued military identification card, for proof of a person's identity and age shall not suffer [...]"
So the accepted forms of ID:
Re:ANOTHER one? (Score:4, Informative)
Uhm, no. The current security of ID cards relies on the fact that it's hard to create a physical duplicate of the card itself. This is mediocre compared to the system being proposed.
A real smart card would have enough space on it for a real cryptographic signature that can guarantee (unless of course the key is comprimised) that this particular card was issued by the good old USA. Coupled with issue and expiration dates, this alone would be vastly superior to anything we have currently and provide a significant barrier to counterfietters.
But that's not all. If you had a real-time lookup system to verify that an ID was in fact issued at all and each card itself had it's own unique entry in the system you end up with a system that is resistant to even key comprimises.
On top of that, if you require unique characteristics such as fingerprint, DNA, retinal scan, heat signature and photo to be gathered at the time of issue of the ID so you could do duplicate scanning (one person can't have two IDs) you end up with a system which is orders of magnitude more secure than what currently exists.
You could even go a step further and only allow a particular machine to be able to read the cards that are only allowed to be operated by government workers subjected to stringent FBI background checks and self-destruct if tampered with. The card itself would obviously also be tamper-resistant.
Even more impressive is that if this was done properly, you could subject every person entering the country to it and in real-time issue temporary IDs that would allow even foreigners who may lie about themselves to never be allowed to lie twice.
Of course, what would be better than a national ID is an international ID (which passports are for, but are pretty poor... ink stamps when entering and leaving a country, please.) Though at least they have barcodes and pretty holograms.
Then again, you have to understand how traditional counterfietting is done. Rarely does anyone actually create a fake ID. Instead, you find an incompetent DMV in some state, steal enough ID information and let them create a nice new ID for you. A well run national ID program would prevent this.
VAPORWARE! (Score:2, Informative)
however this seems to be another case of the infamous Sun vaporware that does everything for everyone.
If I remember correctly, this started off as a PCMCIA card that you slap into any running SunRay (dumb graphics terminal) and you're instantly logged in.
The idea was that you have all your apps run on a large E10k run by an ISP or "appication service provider" and you slap your PCMCIA card into the SunRay at your house and open StarOffice, per say. Then you leave StarOffice open, pull your card, the screen gets locked and then you go to work and slap your PCMCIA card into your SunRay there and voila! StarOffice and the document you were working on is now right in front of you. The reason for this, of course, is that you're app never stopped running -- it was on the E10k and the DISPLAY changed with the slip of your PCMCIA card.
Later, when MS introduced
Now that Sep. 11th happened, it's a national ID.
Remember Jini? Sun said that it was going to change the world and connect everything from your toaster to your car to your computer? That was a huge VAT of vaporware that was simply a collection of protocols (Sun would have you believe that it was a HW/SW solution for everything).
Java was supposed to change everything, too. It was not vaporware, however because of browser incompatability most people resort to server-side Java (which defeats the purpose of cross-platform -- YOU KNOW THE PPLATFORM OF YOUR SERVER!) and does not even come close o solving all the problems that Sun claimed in practice.
The "vaporware" mentality of selling somthing very simple to everyone in the planet telling them that it's going to fix all thier problems has killed much of Sun's credability. It worked with Java, but people know better now and they should cut this crap before no one listens to thier marketing at all.
Re:I think a better question is... (Score:3, Informative)
Originally, when Social Security ID's were being created, Congress had to make a law against using it as a national ID system. Otherwise it would have never passed at the time. Not that anyone listens to that part of the law anymore though.
A word from a country where national ID is in use (Score:1, Informative)
The REAL issue is where you have to present said ID card.
This is absolutely correct. During the Soviet rule national ID had to be carried all the time and presented virtually everywhere. Airline? Show your ID. Check into a hotel? Show your ID. No, you can't check in with that lady because the ID does not identify her as your wife (I am serious, that's how it worked). Want to apply for a job? Show ID. No, you can't have the job because your address of residence is listed in another town. The ID had to be updated if you changed apartments.
Are you guys ready to give up that much of your freedom?
In the present day Russia the ID turned into a useless Soviet relic which solves no problems. It just keeps a few beaurocrats from looking for a new job. It's just funny to see how much things have changed in the last 10 years.
We have ID system in Russia for ages. Guess what? (Score:2, Informative)
You get passport here at 16 and you have to show it to patrols (at least in Moscow), you have to provide its number when you buy or sell car, rent a hotel room, get hired, etc, etc.
Linking Driver License Data != National ID card (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I think a better question is... (Score:3, Informative)