Hours before Government officially announced that January 31 will no longer be the deadline for use of the old National Identification (ID) card, a number of Barbadians gathered to protest against the new Trusted Identity (Trident) IDs, in particular raising concerns about possible data breaches.
Social advocate Marcia Weekes was among the group who gathered at the headquarters of Unity Workers’ Union in Belleville, St Michael, to raise queries about the safety of the pinning of the digital ID.
She pointed to data breaches that occurred in recent times, such as the leaking of the Barbados Electoral List in 2021, the Inter-American Development Bank Computer Pre-Test, and the cyberattack on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, “On December 29, 2021, a preliminary list of over 264 000 Barbadians, including our names, national registration number, gender, date of birth, residential status, constituency, polling station and address were exposed to the open web . . . .
“This faux pas by the Electoral Office has exposed us Barbadians to significant risks of financial fraud, stolen identity, stalking, home invasion and assault, the creation of fake IDs which may be used to open lines of credit, change legal titles, withdraw funds from financial organisations, obtain new passports at foreign consulates or otherwise solicit business services illegally.
“Who was responsible for managing and securing this data? The same Electoral and Boundaries Commission that will be controlling our Trident Digital ID,” Weekes charged.
Former minister and senator in the previous Democratic Labour Party administration, Maxine McClean, who attended the meeting, called on the Government to provide more information on the level of security in place for the IDs.
“There is no way that you and I can go and find up-to-date accurate information. There is a significant number of persons who up to this point in time do not know exactly what are the implications of the card.
“Something as intrusive . . . needs to be properly explained. This comes against a background of continuous attacks which suggest that the security systems . . . at the level of Government and the private sector are less than we would want to be. Citizens have a lot of questions they want answered by the Government and we believe it incumbent on Government to answer those,” McClean said.
Security
A number of Government ministers and officials have consistently defended the introduction of the new Trident ID, including former Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology Davidson Ishmael who has led the charge. Yesterday his replacement Marsha Caddle announced that the January 31 deadline for use of the old National ID had been pushed back.
Information technology consultant Trevor Sealy, who was also part of yesterday’s group, said that in addition to security and proper management of data, he had concerns related to risks that accompany the centralisation of so much data in one entity, and the sharing of people’s personal data without user consent.
He quoted Part II (Fifth Schedule) of the Barbados Identity Management Act, which listed the particulars contained in the digital chip of the identification card. These include the electronic signature, password, a certificate for electronic identification, a certificate for electronic signature and other representations or unique identifiers that may be stored electronically.
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