Land down underID scheme looks at gaining access

I Australia, too, they are worried about ID theft. A safer and more secure ID authentication system has been developed by Aussie government agency Centrelink and is being offered to the private industry free of charge. According to the Minister for Human Services, Senator Joe Ludwig, Centrelink’s Protocol for Lightweight Authentication of Identity system (PLAID) is used with ID cards for staff access to secure buildings and computer systems and allows fast, flexible, private, and secure authentication as well as inter-operability within and between users.

Ludwig said until the development of PLAID, existing technology in the ID field had been at risk due to hackers. “PLAID will prevent the cracking of authentication systems and foil the cloning of smartcards and other system-access devices,” he said. “With a vast database including millions of Australians, Centrelink takes a very serious approach to customer privacy and employee access.”

Senator Ludwig said Centrelink was making PLAID freely available on the Internet for government agencies and private corporations concerned about staff security. “The idea is that commercial operators will build on PLAID by developing security software and hardware for other organizations to purchase and use,” he said. “Centrelink will save money buying an ID authentication system, rather than building and maintaining a system in-house.”

Ludwig said Centrelink had around 26,000 employees and administered over $70 billion in payments and services to millions of customers annually. “That’s why it is so important Centrelink has a reliable and strong IT system in place,” he said.