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Identity cards in the UK
Auwst
Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin
1989
cluster. This process continues until the program finds the original boot record. Then this record is copied into the boot sector. The program tries to restore dusters, which are designated as bad in FAT, but are readable and writable and it optionally vaccinates investigated disks. And, finally, I would like to say some words about the usefulness of the material on viruses, published in Computers & Security and in Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin. The Italian virus was the first virus I met in practice. At that moment I was reading about some viruses in Computers & Security and one of them was the Brain. When my colleagues asked me to see the strange ball, which jumps on their screen and which they had been looking at for two days, I began with the boot sector. It was not the original boot sector. Then I looked at my disk and saw one bad cluster. In the second sector of this cluster I found the original boot record. After that I checked the RAM size and it was not 640K but only 638K. The last thing I did was to examine the interrupt vectors’ table and I saw that INT 13H was changed. So I was able to understand and to explain how the virus works in no more than ten minutes.
this interest is attributable to the Football Spectators Bill, although there is a clear distinction between the membership cards envisaged in that measure and identity cards proper. The main value of the latter has generally been seen in terms of crime prevention, and the Home Secretary accordingly sought the views of the Association of Chief Police Officers. Their advice was that there would be some advantages, together with some disadvantages, for the police in a compulsory system which required the carrying of identity cards and their production upon request; certainly, compulsory cards would provide no clear advantage to the police in their efforts against crime. A compulsory system of identity cards would be expensive and controversial, and having considered the matter carefully we are not persuaded that such a system should be introduced. A voluntary scheme would, however, be a different matter, and this possibility is being examined. One of the questions which will need to be considered is the information which a voluntary identity card would be technically capable of containing; another is the sort of information which it is desirable for it to contain.
Stefan Nedkov Sofia, Bulgaria
PC SECURITY INDIVIDUAL PRIVACY
BEWARE OF DEMO SOFTWARE
I
IDENTITY CARDS IN THE UK Concern that computerized identity cards might one day be introduced for all UK citizens has led the government’s Home Office to issue the folio wing s tatemen tr It is true that there has for some time been interest, both in Parliament and elsewhere, in the suggestion that a national system of identity cards should be introduced. Some of
01989
Elsevier Science Publishers
Two cases of demonstration software with undesired functions were recently reported to me. Both are interesting enough to act as an example for what might happen if demonstration software is tested in a normal working environment, and not within an isolated test installation. Case One A well known German software company in Bavaria, specializing in personal computer
Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin
1989
cluster. This process continues until the program finds the original boot record. Then this record is copied into the boot sector. The program tries to restore dusters, which are designated as bad in FAT, but are readable and writable and it optionally vaccinates investigated disks. And, finally, I would like to say some words about the usefulness of the material on viruses, published in Computers & Security and in Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin. The Italian virus was the first virus I met in practice. At that moment I was reading about some viruses in Computers & Security and one of them was the Brain. When my colleagues asked me to see the strange ball, which jumps on their screen and which they had been looking at for two days, I began with the boot sector. It was not the original boot sector. Then I looked at my disk and saw one bad cluster. In the second sector of this cluster I found the original boot record. After that I checked the RAM size and it was not 640K but only 638K. The last thing I did was to examine the interrupt vectors’ table and I saw that INT 13H was changed. So I was able to understand and to explain how the virus works in no more than ten minutes.
this interest is attributable to the Football Spectators Bill, although there is a clear distinction between the membership cards envisaged in that measure and identity cards proper. The main value of the latter has generally been seen in terms of crime prevention, and the Home Secretary accordingly sought the views of the Association of Chief Police Officers. Their advice was that there would be some advantages, together with some disadvantages, for the police in a compulsory system which required the carrying of identity cards and their production upon request; certainly, compulsory cards would provide no clear advantage to the police in their efforts against crime. A compulsory system of identity cards would be expensive and controversial, and having considered the matter carefully we are not persuaded that such a system should be introduced. A voluntary scheme would, however, be a different matter, and this possibility is being examined. One of the questions which will need to be considered is the information which a voluntary identity card would be technically capable of containing; another is the sort of information which it is desirable for it to contain.
Stefan Nedkov Sofia, Bulgaria
PC SECURITY INDIVIDUAL PRIVACY
BEWARE OF DEMO SOFTWARE
I
IDENTITY CARDS IN THE UK Concern that computerized identity cards might one day be introduced for all UK citizens has led the government’s Home Office to issue the folio wing s tatemen tr It is true that there has for some time been interest, both in Parliament and elsewhere, in the suggestion that a national system of identity cards should be introduced. Some of
01989
Elsevier Science Publishers
Two cases of demonstration software with undesired functions were recently reported to me. Both are interesting enough to act as an example for what might happen if demonstration software is tested in a normal working environment, and not within an isolated test installation. Case One A well known German software company in Bavaria, specializing in personal computer