Schneier on Security

Bruce,

Perhaps I am misunderstanding the purpose of the National ID system. I was under the impression that a National ID card was meant to provide a more consistent (single) form of identification which would lessen the burdeon of financial institutions of verifying the identify of any given individual. Financial institutions currently have to rely on a hodge-podge of different bits of information (which is easily forged) for a given individual before they can be certain that a person taking out a load is who he/she says he is. Isn't one thing going for the National ID Card a means of standardizing identity?

I agree that no system is ever fool-proof... but if we can make the cost of faking an identity expensive enough that it defeats the average dumpster-diver, isn't that in itself worth $23billion?

For all I know the National ID Card is just a laminated social security card. However what I understood it to be had me hopeful that identity theft would be lessened to a degree.