Real ID Act up for debate

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: DAVE KEARNS ON IDENTITY MANAGEMENT
09/28/05
Today's focus: Real ID Act up for debate

Dear security.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* MIT to hold public meeting about controversial Real ID Act
* Links related to Identity Management
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Real ID Act up for debate

By Dave Kearns

One of the catalytic identity events of this past year was the
passage of the U.S. Real ID Act
<http://ecitizen.mit.edu/realid-act.doc>, which encourages
standardization among the drivers' licenses issued by the
states, among other provisions.

So many people had been creating so much buzz about the privacy
issues, the Big Brother concerns and the conspiracy fears
associated with the act, that the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology will be holding a public meeting on Nov. 17 to
discuss the identity management and driver's license portions of
the act.

In order to prepare for that meeting, the organizers last week
conducted an online forum. The forum was divided into several
tracks, which included presentations by leaders in the field,
policy experts and governmental officials. There were also
discussions by interested parties with the speakers. You can
view the results of these conversations and presentations at the
MIT online forum Web site <http://civics.typepad.com/realid/>.

<aside> I apologize for not giving you an earlier heads up on
this, but I only was told about it when it began early last
week. </aside>

What's unfortunate, in my estimation, is that the law is being
nicknamed a "National ID Card" initiative. While you might
expect that left-wing politicians and privacy advocates would be
tossing around that name, the shocker was a headline I read in
the New Hampshire Union Leader, perhaps the most conservative
general circulation newspaper in the country. "NH not sold on
'national ID card'" was the title of the story
<http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=60564>
.

But the Real ID Act doesn't mandate a national ID card, nor does
it create a national ID registry. It does require that the
states create a uniform driver's license and allow sharing of
their Motor Vehicles' Department data if those states wish their
citizens to be able to use those driver's licenses as official
identification for, as an example, boarding an airplane.

Every state will still maintain their own data repository. There
will be no national repository. What can happen, however, is
that the "debate" about a National ID Card can override the
discussion about the need for standardized state procedures to
the point that "Joe Sixpack" begins to think that the FBI is
tracking his every move and that the black helicopters are
waiting, just over the horizon.

Hysterical advocates for the Real ID Act will tell you that
lives can be saved by it, as it will prevent the easy
infiltration of terrorists into our midst. That's questionable
and debatable. But it is possible that, had the full impact of
the law been in effect this year, lives could have been saved
and suffering could have been averted. Come back next issue and
I'll tell you about it.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. Skype: Hazardous to network health?
<http://www.networkworld.com/nldsv7830>
2. How to solve Windows system crashes in minutes
<http://www.networkworld.com/nldsv7594>
3. Commuting costs drive up telecommuting
<http://www.networkworld.com/nldsv7831>
4. McAfee, Omniquad top anti-spyware test
<http://www.networkworld.com/nldsv6901>
5. The rise of the IT architect
<http://www.networkworld.com/nldsv7010>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Dave Kearns

Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's
written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print
"Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks." His musings can be
found at Virtual Quill <http://www.vquill.com/>.

Kearns is the author of three Network World Newsletters: Windows
Networking Tips, Novell NetWare Tips, and Identity Management.
Comments about these newsletters should be sent to him at these

respective addresses: <mailto:windows@vquill.com>,
<mailto:netware@vquill.com>, <mailto:identity@vquill.com>.

Kearns provides content services to network vendors: books,
manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing,
technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill
provides "words to sell by..." Find out more by e-mail at
<mailto:info@vquill.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Nokia
Empower Your Mobile Enterprise

Nokia believes that business mobility will fundamentally change
the way work gets done-and for the better. To allow the entire
organization to get the most from this paradigm shift in
productivity, Nokia Enterprise Solutions focuses on delivering
increased efficiency through enhanced mobility. Learn more by
downloading this white paper today!
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=115980
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

Archive of the Identity Management newsletter:
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/dir/index.html
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The dynamic world of application acceleration technologies

Companies are undergoing a shift in the way they structure their
internal IT departments and external service components. Find
out about the changing market for application acceleration
technologies.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=115731
_______________________________________________________________
FEATURED READER RESOURCE

The Trend Micro Threat Map

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Threat Map can be used to help determine appropriate security
policies, based on the prevalence of threats that can adversely
affect your business.

<http://www.networkworld.com/go/trendmicro/trend_frr>
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