Maryland and Utah have become the latest jurisdictions to join the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators’ Digital Trust Service for mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs).
AAMVA is an organization that serves North American motor vehicle and law enforcement agencies, focusing on driver licensing, vehicle titling/registration, motor carrier services, identity management, and technology solutions to enhance safety and security. Its Digital Trust Service (DTS) is a framework that uses Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to secure and verify the authenticity of mobile driver licenses, ensuring their safety, interoperability, and adherence to international standards.
PKI involves the use of two types of cryptographic keys: private and public keys. These keys are used in digital transactions to ensure that communications and data are secure. The private key is kept secret by the holder, while the public key is shared with others.
In AAMVA’s DTS, PKI enables the verification of mDLs in a way that ensures only authenticated users can access and use these digital identities. This is done by verifying that the public keys associated with an mDL are legitimate and properly certified, thereby assuring that the digital license is valid.
By using this technology, the DTS provides a centralized and reliable point for verifying the authenticity of mDLs, simplifying the process for various stakeholders (issuing authorities, users, and organizations relying on these digital credentials) and ensuring that mDLs can be confidently used across different regions and countries.
In a statement, AAMVA President and CEO Ian Grossman explained that the DTS is shaping up to be the best mechanism through which to confirm mDL credentials.
“Using the DTS, relying parties need only go to one source to obtain the keys to validate the authenticity of an mDL, as opposed to having to work with 69 separate North American jurisdictions,” he said. “At the same time, the DTS saves jurisdictions from the challenge of supporting countless relying parties directly, thereby keeping them free to focus on what matters most: providing safe, secure identity credentials to their customers.”
News of Maryland’s and Utah’s participation in the DTS arrives just a couple of weeks after FaceTec, a specialist in sophisticated 3D face mapping technology for identity verification and authentication, announced that it had appointed Geoff Slagle as its new EVP of Digital Identity. Slagle had previously served as Director of Identity Management for AAMVA.
–
April 15, 2024 – by Alex Perala and the Mobile ID World Team
Follow Us