Report - Guardian

282 The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005government office, court or police station). Each TTP is equipped with card readingmachinery, secure data storage and a secure means of communicating with the centrallyheld data. The newly issued card is locally verified by a PIN and the biometric toauthenticate the user. The TTP then communicates securely with the government'srecords for confirmation that the card is still valid.The TTP downloads all remaining data relating to the applicant and places these on thecard.Once downloaded, all but the essential data held by government is removed. Essentialdata is possibly no more than the unique code, card number (which is invisible) andpossibly the name of the cardholder. At this point the identifier becomes "active". TheTTP keeps a secure backup of the data on the card, along with any certificates andbiometrics.Note. This process can be conducted privately through a privacy platform without theneed for a TTP. The crucial element in this stage is that the data is securely backed upso the registration process does not have to be repeated if the card is lost.The individual now possesses a card, a unique identifier and a secure backup that can beupdated at will.How this scheme will benefit UK businessesThis scheme has certain significant commercial advantages over the Government’sproposals. The most important of these advantages is the ability for the individual tovoluntarily add further information, certificates or identifiers to their card. For example,when visiting their bank to register a TTP, the individual could also receive an identifierfrom the bank that authenticates them as a legitimate account holder. This identifiercould then be used for online banking, ATM transactions etc., and effectively replacetheir existing bank cards. Other identifiers could be added in a similar way at the requestof the cardholder.Key to this feature is the fact that the TTP will have the opportunity to authenticate theindividual during their registration, and can therefore trust that they are the legitimatecard holder; the issue of liability is thereby removed, since the TTP has confidence thatit has placed the correct identifier on the card. In the Government’s proposed scheme,this feature is unavailable, since liability for any fraudulent use of the identity card mustrest with the Government.By reducing the overall system cost, and incorporating features that will deliverpotential benefits to business, we anticipate that a greater proportion of the overall costwill be voluntarily met by those organisations that stand to benefit from theirparticipation, and hence the cost that is passed onto the taxpayer may be significantlylower than that proposed in the Government’s scheme.