UK national ID card cloned in 12 minutes

Computer expert Adam Laurie was hired to test the security that protects the information embedded in the chip on the card.

Using a Nokia mobile phone and a laptop computer, Laurie was able to copy the data on a card that is being issued to foreign nationals in minutes.

He then created a cloned card, and with help from another technology expert, changed all the data on the new card. This included the physical details of the bearer, name, fingerprints and other information.

He then rewrote data on the card, reversing the bearer’s status from “not entitled to benefits” to “entitled to benefits”.

He then added fresh content that would be visible to any police officer or security official who scanned the card, saying, “I am a terrorist – shoot on sight.”

According to the paper, Home Office officials said the foreign nationals card uses the same technology as the UK citizens card that will be issued from 2012.

Full Story: Computer Weekly

U.K. Employs ‘Naughty Boys’ to Battle Other Hackers

Great Britain has launched a new cyber security command center to help combat network intruders and forge offensive attacks against opponents.

The country has hired a number of former hackers to help staff the new Cyber Security Operations Center, which will begin functioning in September.

“You need youngsters who are deep into this stuff…. If they have been slightly naughty boys, very often they really enjoy stopping other naughty boys,” said Lord West, who was appointed Britain’s first cyber security minister.

Tom Watson, a former Cabinet Office minister, told the BBC that the center was needed because there was a lot of “state-sponsored hacking of key U.K. information networks on an industrial scale and we have to transform GCHQ into a spy school for geeks who are more cunning than their Chinese counterparts.”

The new cyber security center will be based in Cheltenham at Britain’s famed secret eavesdropping facility known as GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters).

GCHQ, also known as “the doughnut” for its circular layout, achieved notoriety in the 1980s when news reports revealed that it was part of the global satellite surveillance operation known as Echelon run by intelligence agencies in Britain, the U.S., Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Full Story: Wired