Iowa Wants To Let You Carry Your Driver's License On Your Phone

An anonymous reader writes: The Iowa Department of Motor Vehicles is busily developing software that will allow users to store the information from their driver's license on their smartphone. It would also add features like a simple barcode to scan for information transfer, and two-factor authentication to access it. "At first thought, the idea seems rife with potential security and privacy issues. It is well known at this point that nothing is unhackable; and if a project is made on a government contracting schedule, the likelihood of a breach is only greater. ... Questions of security, however, must take into account context – and there, it can be argued that our current regimes of physical documents have been an enormous failure. Having every state choose their own approach for issuing IDs has led to patchwork regulations and glaring weak points in the system that criminals have repeatedly taken advantage of. Driver's licenses today are regularly forged, stolen, and compromised – it’s far from a secure situation."

Comments

Re:This has been going on for a while

[drinkypoo]

(really? you think cops are going to sit around to transfer 16-128GB? lol)

You've never been pulled over before, have you?

You seem to be under some sort of misapprehension about what the cops actually do with the majority of their time. Yes, they do fulfill an important public service from time to time, and occasionally deal with a very dangerous situation. Most of the time, they're just out there harassing people. I've had a routine traffic stop which didn't even result in a ticket take 45 minutes. They get paid no matter where they sit and who they harass.