UK wants to create a honeypot of centralised personal financial data

[HKZeroFive]

The UK government is working with Google, Microsoft, and the financial industry to create a digital "vault" in which "every detail of people's finances could be collated and stored," according to a report in The Telegraph. Ultimately, this vault would store "people's address, phone numbers, tax details, where they are registered to vote, driving records and benefit claims, as well as information about their mortgages, pensions and bank accounts" in a single, unified database. Gulp.

One of the claimed benefits of the scheme is that it would make it easier to sign up for bank accounts and other financial services. The vault would replace the current system, whereby applicants need to send in copies of key documents such as passports to corroborate their personal information. In the future, "to check someone's identity, a company would then ask potential customers a series of questions and check the answers against the information in the vault."

That means the vault would need to be online so that it could be queried millions of times a day by financial institutions, and probably beyond: once a centralised identity system is in place, it will be natural for others to turn to it when people need to establish who they are. The system is supposedly "opt-in," but the UK's England's Care.data medical database was supposedly opt-out, and look what happened there. If created, it's likely that the vault will be one of those non-optional optional systems: you don't have to join, but if you decide not to, you can't sign up for anything important.

Of course, by placing such a centralised store of key financial data online, the scheme would create not just an irresistible honeypot, but an incredibly vulnerable one too. Even assuming every data security measure were taken, and that there were no errors in the code (just kidding), the vault would be under constant attack by just about every state and non-state actor hoping to get lucky. Which, in the end, somebody will.

NO. NO. NO. What is this? How is this good in anyway? I'm done, honestly.

Sauce: http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2015/08/uk-wants-to-create-worlds-largest-honeypot-of-centralised-personal-financial-data/

[themaniac]

All it takes is one person to make one hack to have all the money from all of the UK citizens bravo UK bravo

[totjup5]

This is probably the stupidest idea I've ever heard....

[Lethal Seraph]

Yay for hackers.

[xXChaoticSymphonyXx]

[Jerakl]

Yay for hackers.

 

They're the only people that can prove the idiots that think this is a good idea wrong.

[SurvivorNVL]

They're the only people that can prove the idiots that think this is a good idea wrong.

And you know that if they do this--they will.  Hell, you'll probably see an honest White-hat do it not long after it is made just to show how bad of an idea it is before a black-hat gets to work.

[Tech_Dreamer]

Well they need to build this & someone needs to break it only then they'll understand how deep this shit is, i hate to say it but the Illuminati guys are kinda making sense as days go by, everything under one control?  it's literally a virtual prison we live in & people are too distracted to act against it at all..

[Nexus]

I wonder if this will be UK wide or whether regional parliaments can block it.

Complete lunacy. While the benefits do look tempting i do not believe they have thought this through enough. 

Ignoring the potential for it to be abused by hackers or even big corporations there is also an inherent morality issue here. Its it really acceptable for government to hoard information on its citizens? I would argue no.

[deviant88]

Just lol UK, lol.

I bet this Cameroon's cabinet idea?

[AlwaysFSX]

This is fucking genius.

[Optimus Prime]

So a more efficient less secure database that already exists?

Am I missing something??

[mikeeginger]

And then all the hackers get all the data at once 

Well done slow  clap* clap* clap*

[Robin88]

Only a complete idiot like Camoron or IDS (Idiot Dickhead Smith) or Captain Cocaine formally-known-as-George-Osbourne could come up with an idea this completely braindead.

This is a hackers wet dream laid with its legs spread out on the dining room table. If they go through with this then god help all of us, it'll only be a matter of time before someone finds a weakness, and as they proved with Universal Credit, they couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery, let alone manage an entire nations financial data.

Who'll oversee access to it? The banks? we saw what happened in 2008 how good they are at managing anything. Capt. Cocaine? He can only just manage to not piss himself while he's walking, never mind the entire nations personal information.

I hope that this is just another thinktank idea that will get shot down before it even gets past planning stages.

[Photonic]

Cant wait to get out of this country

[ShadowCaptain]

Please somebody help me move away from the UK!!!!

[Nineshadow]

Oh, I thought it was a real honeypot. I couldn't figure out what reason they would have for making that, and even how, since they don't have a centralised place for all personal financial data.

Oh well...

[Biggerisbetter]

This already exist, they are called credit bureaus. I'm totally in favor of this idea. Having one centralized location to pull data from, instead of having to pull it from 3 different credit bureaus like it's done here in the states. Having one credit score instead of 3. This has been talked about in the states. It saves time money and resources. Having your informed stored in one located is worth the trade off of having in stored in 3. If this info is being stored for government use, than i'm totally against it.

[FakezZ]

This is fucking genius.

Forgot the /s

[AlwaysFSX]

Forgot the /s

Wasn't sarcasm, this is great. Maybe now they'll finally learn something.

[Blade of Grass]

I'm surprised by the lack of knowledge in the Ars Technica article. They're not creating a honeypot at all.

 

In computer terminology, a honeypot is a trap set to detect, deflect, or, in some manner, counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems. Generally, a honeypot consists of a computer, data, or a network site that appears to be part of a network, but is actually isolated and monitored, and which seems to contain information or a resource of value to attackers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeypot_(computing)

[FakezZ]

Wasn't sarcasm, this is great. Maybe now they'll finally learn something.

It will only take a relatively skilled hacker to break into it and then EVERYONE will be fucked  

[Valentyn]

All it takes is one person to make one hack to have all the money from all of the UK citizens bravo UK bravo

 

The Plot to Die Hard 4!

[Bittenfleax]

After 2 days:

 

 

 

 

 

Imagine if it was like Person of Interest?!  :wacko:  :blink:  :unsure:

[AlwaysFSX]

It will only take a relatively skilled hacker to break into it and then EVERYONE will be fucked

They need to learn somehow.