Virtual Identity Dialogue

Just saw this on CNN about how the US govt is attempting to finally make "REAL-ID" happen.

To summarize - REAL-ID is a specification that is designed to facilitate the standardization of information on Driver's License for electronic readers. The goal being that they will be harder to fake.

As anyone who has followed the story knows - there's alot of hot air on both sides.  People who want REAL-ID think it's going the security panacea  - that 9/11 would some how magically would not have happened had REAL-ID been in place. 

Of course that ignores that best preventive measure would have been kevlar-reinforced cockpits and orders to pilots NEVER to open the door under a terrorist threat.

The reason why REAL-ID is attached to 9/11 is that the terrorists had multiple driver's licenses and that if REAL-ID had been in place we would have caught the terrorists because I guess they would have shown up "Mohammad Ata - Known Terrorist" instead of whatever id they did present.

9/11 was a well funded operation who managed to bribe officials into getting valid driver's licenses without proper credentials. Actually on some level REAL-ID based driver's licenses may actually become easier to obtain because dishonest brokers only have to focus on system to create fakes. Plus because they are more valuable - there maybe more of a reason to sell them illegally (which is how at least some of the licenses in 9/11 were obtained - by buying them for a dishonest DMV employee).

But my favorite line in the story is the reason why REAL-ID cards for people over 50 is not going to be mandatory at first:
" the risk of someone in that age group being a terrorist, illegal immigrant or con artist is much less."

I won't debate the illegal immigrant  (though I personally despise the term but that's for another day & probably different blog). Most immigrants are usually younger people but that's irellevant.

The fact is that the other 2 groups listed - terrorist and con artists (I cracked up reading that) to my knowledge have no age criteria (though I did have a funny idea for a SNL type skit about someone filing age discrimination lawsuit against Al-Queda). Though it doesn't matter as much either because as I've said - REAL-ID is not going to be a magic security silver bullet.

But as I've written earlier - I'm no longer opposed to it either. We're already collecting the information used by REAL-ID and having a standardized system for getting that information is likely to have many positive aspects - security (at least defined by how the proponents of REAL-ID like argue) just isn't one of them.