"Hole in homeland security -- False identification (ID) cards or papers may be one of the biggest holes in the aviation security system"

Monday, October 7, 2002

Hole in homeland security
Air Safety Week


False identification (ID) cards or papers may be one of the biggest
holes in the aviation security system. David Myers, an ID fraud
coordinator for the State of Florida, has a few thoughts on the matter.
When he refers to "each state," substitute "each airline" or "each
airport" and the relevance of his remarks to aviation security are
quickly apparent: 

"Our homeland defense is only as strong as our weakest link. Seven of
the Sept. 11 terrorists had fake driver's licenses. 

"Identity verification is easy and inexpensive. Right now, the standards
used from state to state vary wildly and put everyone at risk. The 50
states have more than 240 different valid types of driver's licenses.
California alone has 14 types of licenses. No security screener can know
the safety and ID features of each. 

"Each state should be able, at a minimum, to authenticate the other 49
state licenses as well as passports. Otherwise, nothing prevents someone
from using a false driver's license from one state to get a valid
license in another state, and from there obtain bank accounts, passports
and other documents. 

"The solution is document authentication technology, which would enable
screeners to read encoded data on the document, for instance, or to scan
the document optically. For the cost of outfitting just one airport with
the latest bomb-detection technology, we could fortify and authenticate
every driver's license and passport issued in the country. The
initiative would pay for itself 

- fully seven cents of every dollar worldwide is estimated to go toward
fraud. More important, document authentication saves lives. 

"Motor vehicle departments' databases can easily be linked and connected
to FBI watch lists to stop terrorists. Preventing ID fraud equals less
crime and terrorism and more lives saved."


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