I had heard this week that an RFID card being developed for trial on Rotterdam's public transport system had been hacked, producing qualms about the security of all systems using RFID. However, according to the comment to the article below, the news turns out to be even more portentious for those in London, where an extremely unpopular Oyster card has existed for some time based on exactly the same Phillips manufactured 'MiFare' chip  

Re-posted from Schneier on SecurityA blog covering security and security technology.

This Anarchist Federation analysis of the National (UK) ID Database, parts of which are already up and running with no need for cards, needs to be read as widely as possible.  A terrifying account of how much more than abstract 'privacy' is at stake, and FOR WHOM.

Having come full circle in half a century, today British citizens stand on the brink of having their 'fundamental rights and freedoms' enshrined in the plasticated chip of a compulsory ID card. But what, asks Martin Twomey of the Hackney NO2ID Group, is this card for exactly and whose interests does it serve?

This month’s Head to Head asks: Does the possible introduction of ID cards into the UK represent an attack on freedom? In a political climate in which the sacrifice of personal privacy is widely considered a fair price to pay for the protection of society from ‘terror’, the media debate often does not extend beyond the practicalities involved.