This is the second time around for the RMV's forgery-fighting efforts. The first time, officials found out through the Internet that a lot of the safety features it had relied on to protect its driver's licenses had been compromised. This time, the state is upping the ante with two digital watermarks, encoded information hidden in the license holder's photograph, and a translucent "ghost" picture on the front of the license.
The license also features another state-of-the-art security item: the "Kinegram," a trademarked feature that has been used on banknotes and passports. It has images that appear to move and elements that can change, depending on how the brain processes what it sees. Massachusetts is the first state to employ this security feature.
Technological protections, however, are only as good as the human being inspecting the license. The National Highway Traffic Safety Commission plans to pick a state to test machine readers that inspect and authenticate driver's licenses with digital watermarks to provide a weapon against fake drivers' licenses and IDs. So far,11 states have digital watermarked licenses and could take advantage of such readers. In December, however, Congress passed legislation that will create minimum standards for driver's licenses. State legislators, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, see that as trampling on states' rights.
