The United Kingdom’s Daily Mail reports that British citizens who opt out of a government ID card system will lose their ability to obtain, keep a travel passport.

From the article —

Anybody who objects to their personal details going on the new “Big Brother” ID cards database will be banned from having a passport.

James Hall, the official in charge of the supposedly-voluntary scheme, said the Government would allow people to opt out – but in return they must “forgo the ability” to have a travel document.

With one in every eight people saying they will refuse to sign-up, up to five million adults could effectively be refused permission to leave the country.

Campaigners reacted to Mr Hall’s remarks with fury, saying they were yet more evidence of the lurch towards “Big Brother” Britain.

Phil Booth, of the NO2ID group, said: “The idea that ID cards scheme is voluntary, and people can opt-out, is a joke.

Source: Don’t like ID cards? Hand over your passport

This embarrasing news for Diebold, posted on bradblog.com, details how hackers recreated a master key for Diebold voting machines from images posted on the Diebold website.

DIEBOLD VOTING MACHINE KEY COPIED FROM PHOTO AT COMPANY’S OWN ONLINE STORE!

The Palm Beach Post reports on a recent lecture on identity theft by famous con man Frank Abagnale, whose criminal activities were made into the movie “Catch Me If You Can”.

From the article –

Frank Abagnale knew about identity theft before it had a name.

In fact, he practiced it with precision.

His legendary exploits as a con man were immortalized in the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie Catch Me If You Can, with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the role of Abagnale.

Between the ages of 19 and 21, Abagnale cashed $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in every state and 26 foreign countries. He posed as a Pan Am airline pilot, an attorney, a college professor and a pediatrician. He also served time in French, Swedish and U.S. prisons starting when he was 21.

”How could I say my life was glamorous?” he said. ”If I had been brilliant, if I had been a genius, I don’t know that I would have felt the need to break the law.” Now a consultant for the FBI and banks such as Morgan Stanley, he spoke earlier this month about his life and about the dangers of identity theft to an audience of around 150 people at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

When Abagnale, 58, did it more than 30 years ago, the process of stealing someone’s identity was simple, if a bit time-consuming. It required going to the county clerk’s office, finding the name and Social Security number of a dead child, asking for a copy of the birth certificate and using that certificate to obtain a driver’s license. With the Social Security number and driver’s license, the financial world was his oyster — and still is for today’s crooks.

The rest of the article discusses the use of technology in modern identity theft and some ways for people to protect themselves.

You can read the full article @ ‘Catch Me’ con man offers advice on avoiding identity theft

CIO.com is reporting the online ‘phishing’ fraud scams will likely manage to steal as much as $2.6 billion dollars from people in 2006.

From the post –

Browser makers may have added new antiphishing features to their products in recent months, but the criminals are still gaining ground in their efforts to defraud U.S. consumers, according to the Gartner research firm.

Phishers have hit more victims with their online attacks, and while fewer people are losing money to phishers, successful attempts have been yielding bigger payoffs, said Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “When they do succeed, they’re stealing five times more than they stole last year.”

The average loss per phishing attack was US$1,244 this year, Litan said, up from $256. Gartner estimates that the total financial losses attributable to phishing will total $2.8 billion this year.

And users who are taken in by phishing scams are less likely to recover their money, Litan said. In 2005, 80 percent of victims got their money back. This year, that number dropped to 54 percent.

Gartner estimates that 3.5 million Americans will give up sensitive information to phishers in 2006—up from an estimated 1.9 million last year.

Source: Phishers to Bilk Consumers Out of $2.8B in ’06

Canada and Germany are rated as the top countries when it comes to privacy protection on their citizens, according to a recent AP article that highlights the findings of an international watchdog group.

From the article –

Germany and Canada are the best defenders of privacy, and Malaysia and China the worst, an international rights group said in a report released Wednesday.

Britain was rated as an endemic surveillance society, at No. 33, just above Russia and Singapore on a ranking of 37 nations’ privacy protections by London-based Privacy International.

The United States did only slightly better, at No. 30, ranked between Israel and Thailand, with few safeguards and widespread surveillance, the group said.

The watchdog organization tracks surveillance and privacy violations by governments and corporations, said director Simon Davies. It studied the reach of governments in their use of video surveillance in private locations, workplace monitoring and identity protection, among other areas.

Source: Germany, Canada top watchdog’s list as countries with best privacy protection