Experts debate Real ID security ahead of May 7 deadline

Next week, Americans will be barred from flying with driver’s licenses that haven’t been upgraded to Real IDs. The deadline has been decades in the making, but as the years have passed, experts are now mixed about how effective the card really is, and whether it might just be worth skipping to an entirely better system that some states have already introduced.

Beginning May 7, citizens will be barred from using older, noncompliant driver’s licenses to gain entry into federal facilities, nuclear power plants, or — most relevant for most people — to board domestic flights. Congress enacted the Real ID Act on May 11, 2005, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Now that the system it proposed is finally coming to completion, though, it’s starting to look a bit rusty in comparison to newer mobile driver’s licenses (MDLs) already issued in more than a dozen states.

Read more at Dark Reading