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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Kenneth Traub

Aired November 17, 2001 - 09:29   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Since the September 11 attacks, the possibility of issuing a national ID card as a means to combat terrorism has come up time and again.

A recent Harris poll shows that two-thirds of Americans would support such a card.

Joining us now from our Miami bureau is Kenneth Traub, CEO of American Bank Note Holographics. His company is a world leader in new security technologies that protect documents from counterfeiting, tampering, and fraud.

Good morning to you, sir, thanks for being with us.

KENNETH TRAUB, CEO, AMERICAN BANK NOTE HOLOGRAPHICS: Thank you.

SAVIDGE: Well, the national ID card is certainly one that raises ire in some people's minds. It also raises a lot of support in other people's minds. Is it that you believe the current system we have -- say, driver's licenses -- for most people just isn't sufficient enough?

TRAUB: No, it's not sufficient, unfortunately, and it has captured the public attention since September 11, since terrorists did use counterfeit driver's licenses aboard the planes.

But it's a much broader issue than that. You need identification documents to pick up your children at school sometimes, at day care, and you need to be able to identify who you are. You need identity documents to cash a check, so many other things in society.

But unfortunately, the only form of identity that most people carry today is a driver's license. And there is no uniformity in the driver's licenses issued across the 50 states. In addition, there's very little security, and in some cases no security, on those documents, making them easy to counterfeit.

SAVIDGE: We make a big deal out of this. Many people say, Well, it's like Big Brother that's going to be peering over your shoulder. And yet there are a lot of ways nationally that the government keeps track of us. Obviously our Social Security number. Do we really make too much of this?

TRAUB: I think so. I think that the argument has been distorted. We're not advocating a national database tracking citizens. We're not advocating any form of people-tracking system. What we're interested in is improving security on identity documents so that they become more difficult to counterfeit and all citizens can carry a piece of identification so that we know who they are when they try to enter into an activity that affects the public.

SAVIDGE: But indirectly, you will be creating a national database. There's no way to escape that.

TRAUB: No, I don't think so. I think what we need is improved security on identity documents so that they become difficult to counterfeit. I can give you an example of a similar problem that we solved. In the transaction card market, there are hundreds of banks that issue MasterCard and Visa credit cards.

And just like in driver's licenses, where there are 50 states and there are actually 400 valid driver's licenses in use today, there are hundreds of transactions cards issued by different states, by different banks.

SAVIDGE: Well, who's going to hold this...

TRAUB: And that's the...

SAVIDGE: ... information? I mean, obviously you're going to have a wealth of information, a lot of it's going to be very private. Who controls it? Who watches over it to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands? I certainly don't want it out there with the credit card people. Who gets it?

TRAUB: No, it's not a matter of holding information, it's a matter of creating secure identity documents so that they're difficult to counterfeit. That's just like what we did with the transaction card market. American Bank Note Holographics is the leading supplier of security devices for transaction cards.

And we've done this in partnership with the transaction card industry and worked closely with the Secret Service and Interpol to make those documents, transaction cards that you carry in your wallet today, very difficult to counterfeit.

And the same sort of security needs to be implemented on identity cards. That doesn't mean...

SAVIDGE: Could we make it...

TRAUB: ... creating a database, it means creating identity documents that are difficult to counterfeit.

SAVIDGE: Could we also make it -- I guess user-friendly, is the word that comes to mind here, in the sense of perhaps my medical information could be on there, if I'm struck by a car, I'm unconscious, someone can quickly verify that. Is there other information on that card that perhaps would make it more palatable to people in general? TRAUB: There could be, and that can open up other opportunities. But that's not what we're seeking. We're identifying a problem that needs to be addressed, and we're -- we don't want this problem to be complicated with all sorts of other objectives dealing with databases and other types of things that one can do with a smart card, for instance.

What we think we need is a secure form of identification that cannot be easily counterfeited, that's uniform across the 50 states, and that is federally mandated so that all citizens will carry an identity document with confidence that when it's presented, it is the genuine article.

SAVIDGE: All right, well, if we get this card, you say that it is difficult to duplicate. It sounds like there could be that possibility. And if so, doesn't that make it null and void as to the value of the system, if someone can get around it?

TRAUB: Well, no system is necessarily perfect. But we believe that with the technology we have, we can create a very secure identity document that is virtually impossible to counterfeit.

Now, what we can incorporate in it are features that make it easily recognizable by the general public, and if everyone carries this form of identity document, everyone will have it in their wallet, will be able to compare what they have versus what they're presented with in any sort of environment.

In addition, we would incorporate covert features that would support law enforcement in investigating a counterfeit versus an authentic document.

SAVIDGE: Got it. Kenneth Traub, who joins us this morning, his company is American Bank Note Holographics. Thanks for coming in, we appreciate the conversation.

TRAUB: Thank you very much.

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