Armed UK Police Raid House Over Facebook Picture Showing Toy Weapon In Background

One of the reasons Techdirt rails against exaggerated responses to supposed terrorist threats is that it has caused police forces around the world to lose all sense of proportion -- literally, in the case of this UK story from the Daily Mail. 

On Techdirt.

UK ID Card Technology Cloned...

...in 12 minutes:

Embedded inside the card for foreigners is a microchip with the details of its bearer held in electronic form: name, date of birth, physical characteristics, fingerprints and so on, together with other information such as immigration status and whether the holder is entitled to State benefits.

This chip is the vital security measure that, so the Government believes, will make identity cards 'unforgeable'.

But as I watch, Laurie picks up a mobile phone and, using just the handset and a laptop computer, electronically copies the ID card microchip and all its information in a matter of minutes.

He then creates a cloned card, and with a little help from another technology expert, he changes all the information the card contains - the physical details of the bearer, name, fingerprints and so on. And he doesn't stop there.

With a few more keystrokes on his computer, Laurie changes the cloned card so that whereas the original card holder was not entitled to benefits, the cloned chip now reads 'Entitled to benefits'.

No surprises there, of course; but what's significant is that it's the Daily Mail that's pushing this jolly news out to its assembled readers. This means the message is going out to groups beyond the obvious Guardian greeny-lefties and Telegraph Tories.

The UK government will presumably just carry on blithely ignoring these inconvenient demonstrations of the deep lack of security at the heart of this lunatic project. Worryingly, it comes in a week where UK High Court ruled that the government's not liable for the consequences of its errors, which means that when your ID card is cloned and abused, *you* will have to foot the bill....(via Ray Corrigan.)

Up Next for UK: Ban on Photos of CCTVs?

This is too rich:

The man probing police conduct over the death of a newspaper seller during the G20 protests was wrong to claim there were no CCTV cameras in the area near the Bank of England, it was revealed today.

Several cameras could have captured footage of the incident two weeks ago, contradicting comments made by Nick Hardwick, the chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Mr Hardwick made the claim in response to the IPCC being accused of sweeping away evidence of police brutality.

I don't know which is more breathtaking: the fact that he said it, or the fact that he thought it wouldn't be checked and found to be inconsistent with reality, as the Daily Mail pictures prove.

Which brings up the interesting possibility that having banned photos of the police - so as to avoid members of the public taking evidence of police brutality - the next logical step would be to forbid people to take photos of CCTVs or to talk about their location - because it would "help terrorists" - so that the police can then claim that they don't exist in an area where police brutality has taken place.

And if you think that's utterly impossible, you haven't been paying attention.... (Via @stevepurkiss.)

Update: What a surprise, the IPCC has suddenly found those errant CCTV cameras. Amazing how a picture can change one's perception.

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