The illusion of security
Toolbox
Published: September 24, 2009
Recent stories about "flaws" in the state's new "enhanced" drivers' licenses should not come as a surprise.
These licenses use primitive, low-tech electronic chips to relay information. The chips are the same as those used to track products in warehouses and stores. They're not very secure.
That's a worry because the new "enhanced" licenses combine a driver's license with sensitive ID information. The sensitive information is kept on Department of Motor Vehicle computers. The information is collected to verify that the holder of the license is in good legal standing.
The "EDL" is, in effect, a mini-passport containing important personal information. It can be used for travel to Canada and a few other Western Hemisphere nations.
But in substituting an EDL for a passport, you're trading a chunk of security for a sliver of convenience.
Security experts say the chip in an EDL can be used to track you anywhere, by anyone with a receiver "reader."
While the chip itself may not contain specific ID data (such as date and place of birth), identity thieves may be able to get enough information to clone a replacement — and use that to get your personal information from DMV files.
The convenience of an EDL is perhaps not worth the price. For most of us, a license to drive and a passport to travel should suffice.
And few of us, it's likely, want to start down a road that could lead to a national identity card. Systems like "Real ID" — which spawned EDLs — create an illusion of security, but little else.
ALLEN GILBERT
(Executive director,
American Civil
Liberties Union of Vermont)
Montpelier
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