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Rants: National ID Cards

Last week legislation was introduced and passed by one of the houses that introduces a de facto national ID card. The purpose of the law is to crack down on illegal immigration. One of the provisions says that all states must have specific information available with driver's licenses in an electronically exchangeable format. The government will also not accept IDs for any official purpose that don't comply. States that don't comply will be denied funding from the Federal Government. This is a problem.

This won't actually solve the problem. It will just ensure that people find ways to get government issued IDs with other false credentials. I'm all for cracking down on illegal immigration, but this isn't the way to handle it. It may reduce the services that are offered to illegals, but I don't see this fixing the problem. You need to create stiff penalties, like deportation with no future hope of citizenship or legal entry. Of course, that is only an incentive for people that are seeking citizenship. This won't dis-incent terrorists or people that are just coming here for a higher (not high) standard of living.

I guess my point is that a simple thing like disallowing IDs to illegals and forcing all of us to have a de facto National ID doesn't fix immigration problems. It only tracks people that follow the rules, or can get around the rules. It doesn't confirm legitimacy.

posted at 16:59 [/rants] #

RSA conference

I've been spending this week in San Francisco at the 14th annual RSA security conference. It's been educational. There have been a number of sessions that have made me scratch my head and wonder how these idiots got to speak to this number of people. Then there were the talks that I came to see.

The funny thing is that there are more people here that I know and have read their books and papers than any other conference I've ever attended. Many of you reading this probably know that I like to read about security and crypto for fun. I don't get a lot of the higher level math, but I still think it's cool. Any way, I'm here hearing the big names in the field speak.

I saw a talk by two of the names at RSA (The 'R' and the 'S' specifically). Talking with them was Diffie of key exchange fame. How often do you get that? Then later in the day I saw a talk by one of my personal favorite writers, Bruce Schneier, who's work I often link. All of these were educational.

Then there were two talks by Richard Clark. You know, Mr "I told you so" on the whole 9/11 thing. It was cool to see him speak, but it was more of the same old thing.

I guess the most entertaining was the opening keynote by Bill Gates. It was kind of amusing having him speak at a computer security conference when his products are the biggest problems on the Net. The most amusing part of his talk was his pronouncement that SPAM has topped out and should decline, especially because of new technology that Microsoft is working on. He actually thinks that he can profile SPAM in a way that won't be circumvented in a day or two.

This afternoon, I should get to meet the Mythbusters at one of the booths in the expo hall. That will be cool. G & I love their show. I will post a picture of me with them if I manage to meet them.

posted at 16:51 [/misc] #