UK Digital ID Card Launch Gets Hostile Reception

The UK government has announced that mandatory digital ID cards will be required for every working adult in Britain by 2029.

“Digital ID is an enormous opportunity for the UK. It will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure. And it will also offer ordinary citizens countless benefits, like being able to prove your identity to access key services swiftly — rather than hunting around for an old utility bill,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

The announcement was greeted warmly by some, but with a lot of concern by others. More than 1.6 million people have signed a petition opposing the introduction of digital ID cards and experts are warning of nightmare scenarios, it is shaping up to be the most controversial tech rollout in recent memory.

The government revealed that the free biometric IDs will be the only acceptable proof of right to work, stored on smartphones through a GOV.UK wallet app.

Honeypot for hackers

Security experts are calling the scheme a catastrophe in waiting. Graeme Stewart from Check Point Software described the digital IDs as a honeypot for cybercriminals, warning that hackers could potentially ransack a central database of 50 million records in a single hit.

In fact, the total UK population stands at 69.6 million, and probably much higher as a huge number of illegal migrants are unaccounted for. Estimates of the population of illegal migrants living in the UK range from 120,000 to 1.3 million, with Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf recently putting the figure at 1.2 million.

And the nightmare does not stop there. Tech expert Andrew Orlowski warned that it will be feasible for an enemy, whether a foreign state, such as Russia or China, or an organised crime group, to hold the entire country to ransom. Imagine benefits frozen, passports unusable, business functions locked.

Chris Linnell from Bridewell told the Daily Mail that the IDs will include names, dates of birth, nationality, residency status, and photos, a tempting target that could enable more sophisticated and tailored phishing attempts against anyone whose data leaks. That is not just spam in your inbox, it is a con that knows your postcode.

The security scandals already plaguing the system

The project rests on a platform that has already been wobbling. External security tests six months ago found serious vulnerabilities in the One Login system meant to underpin these IDs.

The Cabinet Office warned of serious data protection issues nearly three years ago in November 2022, and the National Cyber Security Centre identified significant shortcomings in September 2023. The kicker: One Login lost its Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework certification this year.

A whistleblower revealed in April that the system lacked basic governance and risk management, with development work outsourced to Romania without approval from senior officials or consultation with cybersecurity experts. The business case used to secure £330 million in funding allegedly included misleading claims about cybersecurity readiness.

What this means for UK citizens

The government is moving fast, red flags or not. Starmer declared that people will not be able to work in the UK if they do not have digital ID. The scheme will cost up to £400 million to build with £10 million annual running costs, while Tony Blair Institute research suggests setup costs could reach £1 billion.

The pushback has been equally swift. Within hours, a Big Brother Watch petition surged past 510,000 signatures, calling for the scheme to be scrapped. Eight civil liberties organizations are against mandatory digital IDs, citing risks to fundamental rights.

Ministers promise state-of-the-art encryption and on device storage, with face to face support for those who struggle to access the digital scheme. Still, with identity fraud up 12.5% in 2024 and costing £1.8 billion a year, critics argue that a centralised approach creates a bigger, shinier target.

With three years until mandatory rollout and a public consultation launching later this year, the UK is about to become a testing ground for one of the world’s most ambitious digital identity schemes, built on a foundation that security experts say is already compromised.