There are 128 nations that use chip-embedded or digital identification cards, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Li Meng-yen (李孟諺) said yesterday in defense of the planned introduction of a new national electronic identification card (eID).
“Taiwan must move forward,” Li told reporters following a regular Cabinet meeting in Taipei.
Responding to criticism over potential security loopholes, Li said that the nation is falling behind other countries that have already gone digital.
Taiwan still uses non-digital national IDs, but has used chip-embedded National Health Insurance cards and passports for years, he said.
As for data security, citizens would be able to decide whether their eID would only be used for identification, or be linked with their Citizen Digital Certificate, Li said.
The Cabinet would also conduct a comprehensive information security evaluation based on next year’s planned trial rollout of the new cards for residents in Hsinchu City, Penghu County and parts of New Taipei City, he added.
Li invited experts to challenge the system during the pilot program, after which adjustments would be made before implementing the eIDs nationwide.
“The government has been exhaustive regarding information security,” he said.
People need not worry about contactless card readers being able to pull information from the eID, as such a function is not included in the cards, he said.
The cards would need to be inserted into a reader, rendering it impossible for any sort of detector to steal personal data, whether illicitly or accidentally, Li added.
However, lawmakers, including some of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), have raised concerns about the plan.
DPP legislators Fan Yun (范雲), Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳), Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純), Hung Shen-han (洪申翰) and others on Tuesday hosted a news conference on eID security at the Legislative Yuan with the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.
The participants called on the government to suspend its plans to establish an independent information protection agency and impose regulations to ensure that people’s privacy is prioritized.
Concerns have been raised about the card manufacturer’s relationship with the Chinese government, exposing apparent dangers in issuing the new cards, Fan said.
However, existent laws, privacy protection regulations and oversight mechanisms are grossly inadequate to handle the system, potentially exposing the nation to a breach in security, she added.
Fan said that she first raised these concerns in March with the National Development Council, which said it was consulting experts on revisions to the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法).
Despite a clear need for revisions, there are no signs of progress, she said.
The Ministry of the Interior still wants to issue the eIDs in July, Fan said, criticizing the government for going about things in the wrong order.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
RSS