New Utah secure driver license and IDs utilize Digimarc innovations in fight against fakes
15 November, 2006
category: Government
Utah has tapped secure identity solutions provider Digimarc to produce the state’s new more secure driver’s licenses aimed at reducing counterfeiting. The five-year contract will also help Utah comply with the new Real ID Act.
Beaverton, Ore.–Digimarc Corporation announced a five-year contract with the Utah Department of Public Safety Driver License Division that includes newly designed Utah State driver licenses and identification cards secured with leading innovations in document security.
“Public safety is integral to our agency’s mission, which is why we embarked on introducing new, re-designed and more secure State driver licenses, driving privilege cards for drivers who do not qualify for a Social Security Number, and non-driver identification cards,” said Scott Duncan, Commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety. The Commissioner continued, noting that “the security enhancements that we are implementing will make it easier to detect and deter counterfeiting and to protect our citizens against identity theft and fraud. Utah is taking a leadership role in the fight against fake IDs and in preparing ourselves for REAL ID compliance.”
With more than 240 valid driver license designs for the millions of licenses circulating in the U.S., traditional visual inspection is not adequate to determine the authenticity of these IDs. Utah’s new driver license improves the effectiveness of inspection by incorporating machine-readable Digimarc digital watermarking and a visible security feature called laser perforation.
Laser perforation, which is micro-holes drilled by a laser and fully contained within various layers of the card material, increases the reliability of visual inspection and is very difficult for counterfeiters to simulate. Inspectors can hold the card up to a light source and see through these very small perforations. Digital watermarking goes further, providing trusted machine-readable cross-jurisdictional authentication of the driver licenses and IDs for law enforcement, TSA, border crossing agents, retailers and others who rely on inspection of IDs. Utah joins a host of other States who have adopted digital watermarking. Nearly 50 million circulating U.S. driver licenses carry digital watermarking security features, and Digimarc anticipates that approximately 1 in every 2 driver licenses issued in 2007 will include digital watermarks.
Together, digital watermarks and laser perforation raise the bar against driver license counterfeiting, alteration and photo swapping, providing Utah’s citizens with a much higher level of security than prior licenses and preparing the State to meet anticipated federal ID security standards.
About Digimarc
Digimarc Corporation, based in Beaverton, Oregon, is a leading supplier of secure identity and media management solutions. Digimarc provides products and services that enable the annual production of more than 60 million personal identification documents, including two-thirds of U.S. driver licenses and IDs for more than 20 countries. Digimarc’s digital watermarking technology provides a persistent digital identity for various media content and is used to enhance the security of financial documents, identity documents and digital images, and support other media rights management applications.
Digimarc has an extensive intellectual property portfolio, with more than 285 issued U.S. patents with more than 5,000 claims, and more than 500 pending patent applications in digital watermarking, personal identification and related technologies. The Company is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, with other U.S. offices in Burlington, Massachusetts; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and the Washington DC area; and international offices in London and Mexico. Please go to www.digimarc.com for more information.