Something like a proper authentication protocol would be useful for sure, but I would bet good money that the government would roll out some weird homebrew nonsense that would be compromised in hours.
Not to make the perfect the enemy of the good, but realistically I doubt we'd get anything actually secure.
> Something like a proper authentication protocol would be useful for sure, but I would bet good money that the government would roll out some weird homebrew nonsense that would be compromised in hours.
Did you read the linked article? CACs are in use by the DOD and have been for years.
Re:IRS Security
by toomuchtodo on Friday April 15, 2016 @11:50AM
(#11505253)
Estonia does this [1], and it works brilliantly.
well the issue here is that the right will fight against a national id card on the basis of big brother and privacy and the left will claim it leads to disenfranchisement.
both sides need to recognize that if absolute indemnification is required for tax purposes it is as well for voting rights because it protects both equally. the challenge is how to keep confirm the card is really held by the person holding it. pin numbers don't cut it
I know that a lot of folks don't want a national ID card. I don't either. But that's easy enough with a smart PKI: the federal government and its agencies can trust the state governments' issuing agencies. Each state could issue CAC-like cards to its citizens, and then those folks could sign their taxes and conduct other official business.
It'd probably end up relied upon by other vendors, just like Social Security numbers, but at least a) it'd be more secure b) it'd be breakable only by the government, rather than by the government and anyone else.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Access_Card