Indiana motor vehicles agency puts new license system into drive
The Digimarc system will help the state comply with the federal Real ID Act
Computerworld - Digimarc Corp. has been awarded a six-year contract from the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) to supply a faster and cheaper over-the-counter drivers license and state ID issuing system.
The initiative, which replaces an older Digimarc system, will offer a number of innovations in drivers license security and system architecture to help the state offer a high level of customer service and security to Indiana residents, according to the company.
The system will be deployed across the state to process applications and instantly issue drivers licenses and state IDs, and should be fully operational by this fall. It will also establish a platform that can be extended to incorporate new secure ID applications required by state or federal laws, including the federal Real ID Act. Under that law, federal agencies -- as of May 11, 2008 -- will stop accepting older U.S. drivers licenses or ID cards. Activities such as opening bank accounts, visiting national parks and traveling by air will all require the new federally-approved ID cards or licenses.
The system will add layers of security -- including watermarks -- and we think that will be beneficial for us and our customers, said BMV spokesman Greg Cook, noting that the state issues between 1.5 million and 2 million licenses or ID cards a year. The bottom line is it ... will be faster so it should expedite the issuing process. We want to get our customers in and out of the branches as quickly as we can.
Currently, the state pays about $1.28 per license or ID issued. With the new system, that cost will drop to about $1 for each ID card or license, Cook said.
The system includes more than 200 workstations and camera towers that will be used to process drivers license and ID applications, as well as capturing signatures and taking high quality pictures of applicants, said Scott Carr, executive vice president of Beaverton, Ore.-based Digimarc. It also includes over-the-counter secure printing systems that allow the BMV to instantly issue secure licenses and ID at offices around the state, he said.
Part of the system is a secure extranet that allows for integrated inventory management between the state and the system, he said. To have the lowest costs and high security you want to have direct control over the materials and consumables that go into that drivers license card. This allows integration between the BMV personnel and our own system for the control of that material, so we know where it is in the system and can manage it throughout the process.
Carr said Digimarc will deploy the Microsoft .Net version of its driver's license issuance system, which allows for easy integration with the states IT infrastructure and data center.
Read more about Security in Computerworld's Security Topic Center.



- Excel 2010 Cheat Sheet
- Register for this Computerworld Insider Cheat Sheet and gain access to hundreds of premium content articles, guides, product reviews and more.
- Overcome Top 7 Admin Challenges of Active Directory
- As Active Directory's role in the enterprise has drastically increased, so has the need to secure the data. Gain insight on creating repeatable,...
- Insiders Can Ruin Your Company. Take Action.
- Did you know that 80 percent of threats to an organization come from the inside? The threat from insiders is often overlooked in...
- Top Solutions and Tools to Prevent Devastating Malware
- Custom malware frequently goes undetected. According to Forrester Research, the best way to reduce risk of breach is to deploy file integrity monitoring...
- X-Ray of the PCI Process-4 Proactive Steps
- This white paper from Forrester Research Inc., helps break PCI into understandable components. Security and risk professionals will gain knowledge and insight into...
- Identity Governance: The Business Imperatives
- This white paper describes the business challenges and opportunities that are driving interest in Identity Governance while discussing considerations your organization should make... All Security White Papers
- Live Webcast
Playing Defense: Staying on Top of Your Disaster Recovery Game - When it comes to disaster recovery, rapidly growing data volumes, distributed computing models, and new technologies all combine to present an ever-changing playing...
- Introduction to VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5
- Traditional disaster recovery solutions are often too expensive, complex and unreliable to meet business requirements. As a result, IT departments are hesitant to...
- The Top Ten Secrets to Avoiding SAN Performance Problems
- Maintaining peak performance while simultaneously addressing the root cause of SAN errors is challenging. Learn the most common SAN problems and explore new...
- Deduplication Without Compromise
- Go inside Quantum's scalable, high-performance, multi-protocol new DXi deduplication appliances, designed to make backup much more effective. Discover how the new future-proof DXi6700...
- Director of Disk Products Discusses DXi6700
- Discover how the new DXi 6700 series of deduplication appliances provide investment protection and a future-proof feature set, all while delivering fast, scalable,...
- Playing Defense: Staying on Top of Your Disaster Recovery Game
- When it comes to disaster recovery, rapidly growing data volumes, distributed computing models, and new technologies all combine to present an ever-changing playing... All Security Webcasts