Homeland Security ID plan applies the pressure
State IT staffs already hit by budget constraints expect to be hit again by another big project this year: fulfilling federal Homeland Security dictated standardization of government-issued ID cards.
Just the ID requirements alone will cost states $11 billion over the next five years to upgrade state-issued drivers licenses to federal standards, according to the National Conference of State Legislators.
The new cards must be ready by May 2008, but so far the federal government hasn’t told states what the standards are for the new IDs. The federal government has also set aside only $40 million so far for the project, the state legislators association says.
The federal Real ID Act calls for making it harder to counterfeit IDs, which includes scanning technology to rapidly read secure data on the card, which must also be encrypted.
States responding to the rules via the several professional organizations say the scanning technology would mean an equipment upgrade for most state, and the encryption would require technology that would be altogether new to the states. The concerns were generated by a joint committee from the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislators and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.
Plus, these groups say, the ID cards may have to be larger so they can hold all the additional information.
The federal law requires states to verify through a Homeland Security database that applicants for drivers’ licenses are in the United States legally. States say they lack the WAN connections to tap the database real-time, and even if they did, the database isn’t fully functional.
“[The database] must allow for reliable real time response to a high-volume, hub-based, query environment – which can be integrated into DMV transaction processes,” according to a report by the groups.
The law calls for collection of copies of the documents used to obtain drivers licenses, which means scanning and digital storage infrastructure. “Documents must be coded and data systems developed to associate each record with the proper individual and document type, ideally in a manner that is integrated with the motor vehicle database. Retrieval programs must also be written along with the applicable privacy protection,” the report says.
Currently only 12 states use digital imaging for document storage, and those only use if for limited numbers of documents. The new requirements would require imaging 2.5 billion images per year, the report says.
The report says the law requires each state to verify that another state hasn’t issued a license to each applicant before it can issue a license. The report notes that there is no shared database of licenses issued by state.
Privacy laws coming
State IT departments will also have to deal with an expected spate of new state laws governing the security of government computers. The key element of these proposals is notification requirements when personal data is compromised by theft of personal data stored on government machines.
