Biometrics and computer crimes

The governor put forward some plans for using biometric data for driver's licenses, as well as creating new crimes for hackers and people who use computers for crimes.

The proposals on stiffening penalties and creating new crimes looks fine to me, although given the reality of the internet, it may be hard to prosecute data theft that is outside of this state or country. The biometric proposal is interesting, and I don't think I know enough about it to form a good opinion one way or the other. I'm glad that the proposal doesn't put biometric data on the licenses themselves, because that doesn't work. This may be one of the limited times that biometrics are useful.

For those who want to know more about biometrics and how they can fall short when it comes to security, Bruce Schneier is THE expert when it comes to these issues. He knows his stuff, and he is sane about the tradeoffs that must be determined for any security system.