AUGUST 28 — The Cabinet green-lit a Trojan Horse earlier this week. I'm not sure who suggested the National Digital ID but it is an absolutely terrible idea.
The justification for its existence is that it will be a new way of authentication online.
Why do we need a separate digital ID when we already have the national registration department? We have the MyKad system so why do we need yet another login, supposedly to supersede all other logins?
This one login will supposedly be the one login to rule them all. Has no one even thought about the possible fallout in case of security leaks?
Seeing how quickly the issue of telco records being compromised and sold on the Dark Web was buried and not addressed effectively by the departments in charge, how can we be sure of the safety of this platform?
You only need to look at any government ministry website to see the state of our current IT affairs.
Never mind the design of the average government website, that looks as though it was designed by a child discovering Microsoft Paint.
A cursory check revealed that some government websites, such as Wisma Putra, aren't even updated with security certificates.
It's 2019, Wisma Putra. Why doesn't your website have https in the URL?
Ask anyone with experience dealing with government IT procurement and there will be sorry tales of ludicrous sub-contracting, murky deliverables and poorly maintained infrastructure.
Every other week, a major Internet service will announce some sort of security breach. What assurances can there be that Malaysia can ensure proper online security if even some of the biggest names can't?
What is also annoying is that when it comes to major projects in Malaysia, there is a tendency not to ask: "What's the worst that could happen?"
If someone's national digital ID was compromised, identity theft is a serious state of affairs. Think how much potential damage that could be wrought by placing an individual's digital affairs under one single umbrella.
Fix our current infrastructure first — just look at the embarrassing breakdown of KLIA's systems. We do not have the culture of maintaining things; we build them up, we hype them and then ignore them until they fall apart.
There's a lot we can do to improve e-commerce and spur on the digital economy. Forcing a national digital ID on all citizens? I'd say we can do better.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
