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The leak of more than 100,000 passport scans and biometric selfies linked to a third-party visa website has renewed concerns over the security risks surrounding Britain’s growing shift towards digital ID systems.
A site operating under the name UK Visa Portal – which is not affiliated with the UK government – was found on Wednesday to have left highly sensitive identity documents publicly accessible after users uploaded passports and verification selfies as part of visa applications.
Saskia Koopman has the story.
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0:00
100,000 passport scans and biometric
0:02
selfies have been leaked exposing photos
0:05
and location data which was meant to be
0:07
held by a third-party provider on behalf
0:09
of the government. So, what does this
0:11
mean for trust in government IT systems
0:14
more widely? CityAM's tech reporter
0:16
Saskia Coetzee is here to explain all.
0:18
What's going on here?
0:19
>> Um so, as you said, a third-party site
0:22
called UK Visa Portal has exposed kind
0:24
of thousands of scans and selfies that
0:27
you have to you know, put through your
0:29
phone when you're trying to apply for a
0:30
visa or a travel
0:32
authentication system
0:35
which is kind of a crucial time for that
0:37
to happen when the government has also
0:39
been pushing for a digital ID scheme
0:41
which MPs have already criticized this
0:44
week and last week saying that it's been
0:47
rushed and it has been you know, poorly
0:49
thought out. Uh and so, I think that
0:51
just damages public trust in a system
0:53
that can lead to to more fraud and more
0:57
um
0:58
Sorry, and more fraud.
1:00
>> I [snorts] think it was Was it last year
1:02
that they introduced sort of mandatory
1:04
ID checks on various websites for people
1:06
who are already uploading photos of
1:09
themselves to government portals and
1:11
stuff? Is that going to make people
1:13
think twice before going on say a
1:15
gambling website or something like that?
1:17
>> Well, I think it was put in so that
1:19
people would think twice before even
1:20
kind of accessing those kind of
1:22
websites, but I don't think it will
1:23
actually have that effect as much. I
1:24
think it's more from a government
1:26
perspective, they have you know, all
1:30
kind of different sectors within
1:31
government are under immense pressure to
1:33
digitalize including obviously
1:36
visas and and and that side and I think
1:39
it's
1:40
>> It it feels like the political dividing
1:41
line. So, if you've got sort of the
1:42
government on one side and then people
1:43
like William Hague and Tony Blair who
1:45
become converts to this and then you
1:46
have the sort of more David Davis
1:47
libertarian side and you've got reform
1:49
and sort of elements of the
1:50
conservatives. I suppose the argument
1:52
that the government will always make is
1:53
that it's inherently more secure to have
1:55
things are a digital system because A,
1:56
it's there. So like that's going to that
1:59
that is going to make it much more
2:00
difficult to work illegally in the UK.
2:01
That's going to make it much more
2:03
difficult to get away with sort of money
2:04
laundering and and sort of dark finance.
2:06
>> But does this just make that argument
2:08
much harder to make on their end?
2:11
>> Yeah.
2:11
>> And there was actually data it hasn't
2:12
been kind of confirmed but TechCrunch
2:15
who who broke this said that
2:17
some kind of metadata was also leaked
2:19
which means you could tell where like
2:20
the exact location where people were
2:22
taking the selfies which that just opens
2:23
up a whole new kettle of fish.
2:25
>> Cuz when you take that photo on your
2:27
iPhone it says taken in
2:29
>> Exactly in the same way as you can look
2:30
through your photos and see where you
2:31
took whatever photos. I also think
2:34
having the mix of taking someone's
2:36
passport doc or ID document and selfie
2:38
is probably the worst combination in
2:40
terms of augmenting fraud.
2:42
>> Yeah, it has every single key
2:44
>> vertical
2:45
>> vertical uh uh pictures and
2:47
>> And and your location so like yeah, it's
2:49
kind of a breeding ground for
2:51
>> But at the end of the day we do need to
2:53
digitalize government systems. I mean
2:55
you know, Wes Streeting did a rather I
2:57
thought good job of banging this drum
2:59
about digitalizing stuff in the NHS.
3:02
>> But look where Palantir NHS deal has got
3:05
to and how much backlash that's kind of
3:06
gone.
3:06
>> I would really like to do a long
3:07
sit-down conversation with you by the
3:09
way about like where this sudden
3:11
conspiratorial thinking around Palantir
3:13
in the NHS is coming from. A lot of
3:15
you know, Tony Blair makes an
3:17
intervention saying AI good and sort of
3:19
the Labour Party pushes back heavily and
3:22
says tech bros bad.
3:24
>> I do think a classic kind of counter
3:26
argument any kind of digital
3:27
digitalization is fraud and data
3:31
protection. I think that will always be
3:33
something that any advancement any
3:34
innovation will
3:37
mean that we're going to have to be
3:38
exposed to more data cuz there's no AI
3:39
without data.
3:40
>> Is it a bit of a worrying sign of how
3:42
weak a lot of central government's
3:44
become that you simply I would argue and
3:46
this is getting quite opinionated that
3:47
you just ignore that kind of criticism
3:49
and you just push it through. And a
3:50
government 30 years ago would have been
3:51
able to do that. But there is now such
3:53
paralysis and such worry about consensus
3:56
that I mean we are such an outlier in
3:58
Europe. It's basically just us and the
4:00
US have left so much on paper and we're
4:02
so late to this. And it's it feels I
4:04
mean obviously this this story helps in
4:07
no way that case but it it it is
4:10
>> The fear mongering will not stop after
4:11
this story.
4:12
>> No, it will it will intensify.
4:13
>> At [snorts] risk of this podcast
4:15
sounding becoming a kind of Tony Blair
4:17
stan
4:18
>> [laughter]
4:20
>> And we don't endorse that.
4:21
>> I will say though he is right when he
4:23
says you know government needs to learn
4:25
to preach to people and try to convert
4:27
them. I mean digital ID was very popular
4:29
before Keir Starmer was in power.
4:32
>> Blair also abandoned it.
4:34
>> Yeah.
4:34
>> And that's so it's it's one of those
4:36
it's one of those issues. Yeah.
4:38
>> That and the Euro.
4:40
Saskia Gibbons thank you very much for
4:42
coming in.
4:42
>> Thank you so much for having me.
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