At a press conference in St. Paul today, Governor Tim Pawlenty unveiled the new design and state-of-the art security measures for the Minnesota driver license, saying, "These new cards make Minnesota a national leader in the area of identity protection."
Digimarc will be responsible for providing Minnesota with a new, enhanced card design that will include advanced, interlocking security features designed to thwart duplication or alteration of the state's cards. Minnesota will also become the 11th state in the U.S. to adopt Digimarc IDMarc covert digital watermarking security features as a means to verify the authenticity of driver licenses at point of inspection. In addition, the new license will incorporate a new, custom security laminate and other design features that will make it extremely difficult to counterfeit or alter the cards without obvious detection.
The new licenses will be issued from a high-security, central production facility, offering centralized control over materials and the secure issuance process. The state's new cards will be issued to Minnesota residents beginning in mid-December.
"Providing the residents of Minnesota with a very advanced and secure driver license underscores our commitment to reducing identity theft and fraud and fighting counterfeiting," said Michael Campion, Commissioner of Public Safety. "We look forward to rolling out a new, high-security Minnesota license later this month."
