ChristopherWhite.info

A while back, I submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Identity and Passport Service, asking how many ways there are that they know of in which it is possible to compromise the security or integrity of the proposed ID card scheme.

I mentioned their reply here, when they claimed that disclosing their strategies and tactics for dealing with fraud would not be in the public interest. Naturally, I requested an internal review of their decision, on the quite reasonable grounds that I didn’t ask for their strategies to deal with fraud: I asked simply for a number.

Following this internal review, the IPS now claim to have misread my original request, and that they “do not hold information on the number of ways it may be possible to compromise the integrity of the proposed identity card scheme”.

Spot the subtle difference.

They deny holding information on the number of ways in which compromising the ID card may be possible; I asked for the number of ways in which they know it to be possible.

It’s not actually possible for them not to hold the information that I did request. At risk of starting to sound like Donald Rumsfeld:

Either they know of ways to compromise ID-card security, or they do not. If they do, then they must therefore know of x ways to do this. If they do not, then they know of zero ways, which means they still know of the number ways – zero. Else they are claiming not to know whether they know of possible security issues.

Question: are they genuinely this stupid, or are they doing it on purpose?

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