Your Rights – RIP (Part II)

Consequently The RIP Bill became The RIP Act (or RIPA). The draft code of practice stated that RIPA orders could only be obtained in the interests of national security; for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime or preventing disorder; and in the interests of public safety. “We must ensure that such access is proportionate to the threat and highly regulated, and RIPA introduces, for the first time, strong statutory safeguards to govern... [Read More...]

Your Rights – RIP (Part 1)

The Passage of the Bill In 2000, the UK Government published details of its plans to allow law enforcement agencies to access email correspondence. For the first time, UK police would be able to lawfully read your emails and listen in on your mobile phone conversations.  The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill was positioned by the UK Government - then in its first term in Government and confident in its powers of spin - as nothing more than... [Read More...]

The one-stop shop for white-collar criminals

David Blunkett’s plan to introduce ID cards is supposedly going to reduce the cases of identity fraud, but it could have the opposite effect as criminals would need to steal or counterfeit just one document. The scheme is to include a variety of high-tech countermeasures such as retinal scans and facial recognition, known as biometrics. But there are no plans to allow financial services companies access to these countermeasures owing to public... [Read More...]

Identity Theft

It is easy to assume someone else’s identity (ID), points out Peter Warner, vice-president of security risk management for Mastercard Europe. “When I walked in here this morning and someone gave me my badge, I had to announce who I was but I didn’t have to hand any identity over. I could have said that I was Joe Smith, for example, and I could have assumed that identity during the break and played the part of one of my competitors,”... [Read More...]