Stork hopes to offer a pan-European electronic ID scheme
Stork electronic ID network takes off
/v3-uk/news/1963917/stork-electronic-id-network-takes
16 Jan 2009, Phil Muncaster , V3
The Stork project to create a Europe-wide electronic identity network gathered pace today with the launch of five pilot deployments to test its readiness for full-scale implementation.
Stork was officially unveiled at the ISSE 2008 security event in Madrid last year.
Around 30 million national electronic ID cards are used by citizens throughout the European Union to access a variety of online public services, but one country's card cannot be used to benefit from the same services in another country.
The Stork project aims to address this with a three-year remit to enable cross-border recognition of national electronic ID systems.
"The success of the pilots in a real-life environment is heavily dependent on the deliverables from all the work packages," said Stork co-chairman Miguel Álvarez Rodríguez.
"Among other factors, they will address existing national frameworks and electronic ID inventories, future technological developments, the required cross-border process flows, the design and development of a set of common specifications, interoperable architectures, and protocols for cross-border electronic authentication."
Seven work packages have also been introduced to support research critical to pilot deployment and implementation, said Stork.
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Do you agree?
Let our European partners beware
To a UK reader, this article of Mr Muncaster's may seem to be about ID cards, the National Identity Scheme and the Identity & Passport Service. But of course, it can't be, because there is no National Identity Scheme, it doesn't exist yet and so it can't be interopearable with the schemes deployed by our European partners.
In fact, the UK scheme which is part of STORK is the Government Gateway (http://www.gateway.gov.uk/). A copy of the source code and logon details for the Government Gateway was found on a USB stick in a pub car park in Cannock last year, as reported in the Mail on Sunday, 2 November 2008, 'Tax website shut down as memory stick with secret personal data of 12million is found in a pub car park' (http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1082402/Tax-website-shut-memory-stick-secret-personal-data-12million-pub-car-park.html).
Individuals, companies and government departments in the UK and in the rest of the EU should understand before they use STORK that its security has been impugned. They need to make up their own minds whether to rely on the UK Government Gateway.
They cannot assume that the data they entrust to it will remain confidential. As the Prime Minister himself said (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082467/I-make-promises-keeping-personal-details-safe-admits-Brown-wake-latest-data-blunder.html):
"It is important to recognise we cannot promise that every single item of information will always be safe because mistakes are made by human beings. Mistakes are made in the transportation, if you like in the communication, of information."
http://dematerialisedid.com/BCSL/Hall.html
Posted by David Moss, 17 Jan 2009