Recycled...

I was flattered to find that members of the Russian control team got hold of my 2002 presentation at the ATA conference ("Navigating the Cyrillic Swamp") and printed out (and laminated, for future reference) the slide that provided the keys to the kingdom in "translating" 8-bit, Win-1251 hash into Russian.

Cheers...

My comment...

This is a comment in response to Notice of Proposed Rulemaking DHS-2006-0030.

Despite the fact that ID checks make us feel safer, identification has little to do with security. An ID won't reveal its owner's intentions, and an ID that's harder to forge - which is, ultimately, the only selling point behind REAL ID - can still be forged or procured from an illicit source (as was the case with some of the photo IDs used by the 9/11 hijackers, all of whom had photo IDs to show as they boarded their flights).

Ironically, REAL ID - which would doubtless be used for purposes beyond the intended one of fighting terrorism - will only make identity theft easier with its "common machine-readable technology" as it is used more often for a wider scope of reasons. And as the recent news regarding the apparent release of TSA personnel data shows, large quantities of accumulated personal information can also be released inadvertently, to the detriment of the public.

The money to be spent to implement this fundamentally flawed system - and official estimates of the cost come to a tidy sum - could and should instead be used to improve security instead of enabling improved monitoring of the behavior of the citizenry.

As you know, there has never been a real, actual debate on the merits of REAL ID, as this measure was tacked on to a "must pass" funding bill. This is not right, and it's hard not to think that REAL ID wouldn't stand up to a frank, honest, and public examination.

REAL ID is a bad idea, and should be scrapped.

Cheers...