Smartcards out of favour for electronic government

Smartcards may not be the driving force behind the UK's information revolution after all, if the government listens to a report presented to the House of Commons today. Its author, Kable IT consultancy, suggests biometrics and cryptography are a far better way of securing personal data.

The report, titled: "I am not a number," is backed by Cisco, EDS, The Dialogue Corporation, Oracle, Post Office Counters, Sequent and Xerox. It indicates that the passwords and pins used by smartcards are not as secure as rival technologies.

Kable has already set up a steering committee of civil servants and sponsors, which will lead discussions about how government should prepare for the information age. Paul Smith, project manager for Kable's BIG (Better Information Age Government) program, said: "The government holds so much personal data on people. There is a real risk that as it becomes electronic, privacy will be compromised."

Smith told Silicon.com that smartcards demand too much personal information from their users. "Quite often, government does not need to know who you are, it just needs to know if you are eligible for benefits."

However, while Cabinet Office minister, Peter Kilfoyle, was supportive of the research in his keynote speech to the Commons, he insisted that future discussions on the subject will, "focus on issues, not technology".

Kable hopes to get its principles included in a white paper on better government, due in spring 1999.