ID cards need to offer benefits to consumers

UK citizens would be more willing to accept a national identity card if it was highly secure and could be used for other purposes, say experts.

The government is considering the introduction of ID cards as a means of reducing benefit fraud and helping to tackle terrorism.

A Green Paper released this week proposed the introduction of unique identifying numbers for children as part of a tracking system to protect children's rights - which some observers see as a potential precursor to a wider ID system.

Security experts at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) believe the introduction of a national card in the UK is inevitable, but say consumers will only be comfortable with it if it delivers benefits to them.

If cards were equipped with digital certificates and allowed bearers to use them for accessing services as well as identification, they could be more popular.

'The Home Secretary has made it clear he wants ID cards,' said Mark Robinson, head of TrustAssured, RBS's online certification subsidiary.

'If you look at other countries such as Belgium it's already happening. And it's going to happen here.'

George Evers, head of sales at TrustAssured, says the opportunity is around providing the consumer with something that delivers value.

'If you issue them with a digital certificate, they can use it not only with the government, but with their telco and so on. This is an opportunity to provide consumers with something they perceive as a benefit, rather than just an ID card that is for the use of the government.'

RBS says public key infrastructure (PKI) digital certificates will also play an increasingly important role in developing trust in ebusiness and services.