Identity UK government scraps controversial digital ID card scheme July 21, 2026 Share By SC Staff (Adobe Stock) TechCrunch reports that the United Kingdom's incoming prime minister, Andy Burnham, has confirmed the government is abandoning a contentious digital ID card initiative that was announced by the previous administration. The Burnham administration stated that the funds saved from the canceled digital ID program will be redirected to a tax cut designed to lower household electricity bills amidst rising living costs. The new finance minister, John Healy, indicated these changes aim to provide financial relief and reassurance during the winter. The digital identity card plan was initially proposed by former Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who believed it would help combat illegal employment and modernize access to government services. The scheme was projected to cost £1.8 billion over three years, though questions arose about whether funding was ever fully allocated. The proposal faced significant public opposition, with nearly 3 million signatures on a parliamentary petition, making it the second-largest on record. Critics voiced concerns that mandatory digital ID cards could enable increased surveillance. This initiative echoed a similar, ultimately unsuccessful, national identity card program from the 2000s under the Tony Blair government, which was abolished in 2011. Source: TechCrunch SC Staff Related Identity Argon2id password hashing neutralizes GPU advantage in cracking attempts SC Staff July 21, 2026 A study by Specops researcher David Ketler examined Argon2id's performance against current password-cracking hardware, specifically testing an eight-GPU system with Nvidia RTX 5090 cards and a single AMD EPYC 9B14 server processor. Ransomware Stolen identities cause 79% of ransomware attacks, says Sophos report Steve Zurier July 17, 2026 Identity failures replace software flaws as ransomware's top access vector. Identity AI agents create identity governance challenges, impacting cyber resilience SC Staff July 16, 2026 A survey sponsored by Commvault and conducted by IDC reveals that 90% of IT and resilience decision-makers believe their identity management capabilities need improvement to address risks from agentic AI. Related Events Cybercast The identity evolution that enables AI confidence Tue Aug 11 Cybercast IAM for MSSPs: Real-World Deployments On-Demand Event Cybercast Privilege risk is in the lifecycle: A CISO discussion on modernizing identity control On-Demand Event Get daily email updates SC Media's daily must-read of the most current and pressing daily news Business Email By clicking the Subscribe button below, you agree to SC Media Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . Subscribe Related Terms Basic Authentication Biometrics Certificate-Based Authentication Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) Digest Authentication Digital Certificate Discretionary Access Control (DAC) You can skip this ad in 5 seconds