New Phone, Who Dis?: Human Authentication in the Digital Age

When proving somebody’s identity, it’s usually an important matter and critical to get right. With digital licences springing up around the globe, including here in Australia, how can we be sure that the computer is telling the truth? Does digitising the process actually improve it? In 2015, the NSW Government announced a commitment to providing digital licences so that people can identify themselves using their smartphones. After a limited trial in 2018 and 2019, the system is supposed to go live to users across the state some time soon. Other countries are trialling similar systems, and South Australia already has one. The way this is presented it is largely as a black box, where ˚✧₊⁎ magic happens ⁎⁺˳✧༚ and your identity is somehow proven. For many people, particularly tech-savvy folk, magic is not a sufficient explanation, nor a basis for trust. Using the NSW digital licence system and associated app, this talk will: - have a look at authentication, authorisation and identity in the physical realm - investigate differences between real-world identity and digital identities - explore the inner workings of the New South Wales digital driver’s licence system, based upon reverse-engineering - discuss why you should - or shouldn’t - trust digital licensing systems, and how it impacts identity verification in your own lives Linux Australia: http://mirror.linux.org.au/pub/linux.conf.au/2020/room_6/Friday/New_Phone_Who_Dis_Human_Authentication_in_the_Digital_Age_2.webm YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD7wU5ct1dI