# Rally against the National ID

- Author: Joichi Ito
- Date: 2002-08-04T14:31:08Z


  
Today I will be on the news at 5:30pm on TBS and 10:30pm (thanks Sakiyama-san) on Fuji TV protesting the National ID. From 1pm to 3pm today, Yoshiko Sakurai, her team and I held a rally passing out pamphlets and giving speeches in the middle of the busy shopping district of Ginza. The media was around in force today, but it is really too little too late. We've been doing this since September of last year and the day before it goes live, the media is finally focused. We will continue our struggle, but it will be harder now that the law is officially running. At least now almost everyone I meet says that they have been protesting this all along instead of threatening me that I will lose everything if I continue...
I have been interviewed several times by TV. It seems that
the media is focused very much on the security of Jyukinet.
I believe, that although this is very important, the bigger
risk is the use of the 11 digit number in databases in the
bureaucracy and the effect that this will have on the ease
in which lists can be created, cross references and leaked.

The media is also discussing quite a bit, the storage on the
IC card. This is practically irrelevant. What is relevant is
the IC card being using to link real world transactions to
databases.

The other big risk is that 11 digit number can be written
down, read and distributed easily. Why didn't they use digital
signatures or some sort of hash function that is not
human readable?

Everyone wants me to talk about the security of the Jyukinet,
and the cut the sections where I talk about the nature of
identity and the concept of privacy underpinning democracy.
Oh well.

With respect to the security of the network, it is important
to note that the Somusho is saying that it is safe because
they have firewalls and leased lines, but anyone who knows
anything about computer networks know that this is not true.
No network is safe. Having said that, I think it is important
to focus, not on the technical issues such as firewall security,
but on the fact that the safest network is a small network
with the least number of users and terminals.




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#### Categories

Japanese National ID, Joi's Diary, Photo