Re: Photo ID is not needed for key signings...

[Mark Grant <mark@unicorn.com>]

Joshua E. Hill (jehill@w6bhz.calpoly.edu) wrote:

> Because _these_ people _are_ binding true names to keys.  That's
> what _this_ is about.

No, they're binding supposedly government-issued ids to keys. There's a
difference.

There are three problems with signing keys based on government-issued ids.

 1. There's no link between a driver's license and an email address,
    so anyone with a license for 'Mark Grant' could claim to be the
    owner of the 'mark@unicorn.com' key.
 2. Governments will issue fake ids to their agents, so there's no 
    proof that that 'Mark Grant' is 'really' 'Mark Grant' and not
    'Joe Sasquatch, NSA, FBI, BATF'.
 3. Thieves have got fed up with faking individual licenses and can
    now do so wholesale; see the following from a recent RISKS
    Digest (18:94)

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Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 16:39:50 -0500 (EST)
>From: GaryG4430@aol.com
Subject: Thieves steal license machines

Excuse me Sir, but would you watch my Golden Goose while I go get a cup of
coffee?

Published in the *Portland Oregonian*, 25 Mar 1997, p.2, Around the
Nation:

  Thieves steal license machines

  MIAMI - Last year, Florida bought computers to make driver's licenses
  that are virtually impossible to counterfeit.  But brazen South Florida
  thieves have been stealing the computers, sometimes later returning to the 
  scene to pick up accessories.  In seven burglaries at five virtually
  unprotected driver's license offices from Key Largo to Okeechobee, crooks have
  gathered the $15,000 computers, software and supplies for five complete
  systems -everything they would need to crank out the state's new 
  high-tech, counterfeit-resistant licenses.

Yup, only our high-tech systems can make our high-security, tamperproof,
extremely valuable documents.  And you can't just buy one of these system
just anywhere...

Gary Grossoehme, Oregon Electronics

  [Also commented on by Bob_Frankston@frankston.com, who notes that if the
  new licenses are considered "foolproof", it only increases their value!
  PGN]

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