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April 2006 • Volume 11 Number 4
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Member Profile: Digimarc
1. What are Digimarc's main business profile and offerings? Digimarc is the leading provider of technologies and solutions that secure and advance important economic and social relationships in media and entertainment and government-issued credentials. Digimarc's digital watermarking technology extends the value of media content by protecting it from piracy and enabling new methods of distribution. Digimarc's secure credentials help citizens secure their identities and enhance their personal safety, as well as protect them from identity theft and fraud, and address critical homeland security needs of government. Digimarc is the leading supplier of government-issued citizen IDs in North America, and produces more than two-thirds of all U.S. driver licenses as well as the Mexican voter identification document and driver licenses for a number of Canadian provinces. The company's state-issued driver licenses have become the de facto standard for establishing citizen identity in the U.S. We deliver high quality, secure driver licenses and issuance systems that enable citizen access to a wide range of services and privileges such as applying for a passport, authorization to operate a motor vehicle, boarding an airplane or purchasing age-restricted products. The company's digital watermarking technology allows imperceptible digital codes to be embedded in all forms of media content, including personal identification documents, like driver licenses. Digital watermarks can be detected and read by software or hardware detectors in personal computers or other digital devices. Digimarc and its partners have deployed digital watermarks in billions of media objects and hundreds of millions of digital devices around the world, enhancing the security of banknotes, music, movies, photographs, digital images, printed materials, television and radio programming, and government-issued credentials. 2. What role does smart card technology play in supporting Digimarc's business? Digimarc currently supplies driver license solutions to two-thirds of the U.S. states, and identification solutions to more than 20 foreign countries. We have partnered with our customers through every major transition in driver license systems, including the move to digital IDs, central issuance IDs, biometric secured IDs, and the use of digital watermarking as a covert security layer. We are the only company focused on meeting the unique and growing needs of driver license issuers and we intend to keep pace with new requirements and technologies to support our customers, including smart card technologies, when appropriate. Additionally, digital watermarking technology provides a critical capability to link an embedded chip to a credential as the watermark can be represented in photographs and printed document images and tied to the chip on the credential. This effectively establishes a much higher level of security that prevents photo swapping, chip swapping or alteration of data printed on the credential. 3. What trends do you see developing in the market that Digimarc hopes to capitalize on? Nationwide, we continue to battle counterfeiting, identity theft and fraud, and work to help control the sale of age-restricted products, such as alcohol, tobacco products, lottery tickets and firearms. According to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis, there were 1,861 young drivers involved in alcohol-related fatal crashes in 2003. The social cost of underage drinking has recently been estimated at $53 billion, including $19 billion from traffic crashes and $29 billion from violent crime. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission estimated that 10 million Americans will become the victims of identity theft each year, with a total cost to businesses approaching $50 billion. Additionally, governments are under increasing pressure to ensure the safety of citizens and protect them from the growing threat of terrorism. The Department of Homeland Security is currently developing mandates to increase the security of U.S. driver licenses as part of the REAL ID Act. Digimarc will lead the way in helping our state customers achieve compliance with REAL ID in the fastest, most efficient way, providing high quality solutions that offer the greatest value and security for each jurisdiction. 4. What do you see are the key factors driving smart card technology in the market? The need to ensure the security of citizens and businesses, protect personal information, control access to information or physical locations, and support secure transactions, to name a few. Smart card technology may facilitate interoperability across some ID credentials and systems which could potentially be a key attribute of future identity management systems. 5. How do you see your involvement in the Alliance helping Digimarc become successful? Digimarc brings decades of experience in solutions for government-issued credentials, primarily driver licenses. We have issued billions of credentials over the past 47+ years and are a leading innovator in secure IDs that enable governments around the world to deter counterfeiting, enhance traffic safety and national security, combat identity theft and fraud, and facilitate the effectiveness of voter ID programs. We offer many valuable technologies that span the secure ID lifecycle, ranging from demographic data capture, identity validation, and applicant data and biometric verification systems, to the design and secure production of credentials incorporating linked and layered security features, culminating with effective ID authentication deployed at various points of inspection. We believe our involvement in the Alliance will give rise to many mutually beneficial relationships with other members, in which Digimarc identifies trusted and responsive partners that can help to bring the benefits of smart card technology to our customers. Additionally, we expect to build relationships where Digimarc's valuable digital watermarking, and other technologies, and our expertise in credentialing can add value to the offerings of other Alliance members. Finally, our extensive supply chain relationships will enable effective standards to be established that are economically feasible to the public. We look forward to working with other innovators and industry leaders to advance new and existing technologies to meet the growing demands of the personal identification market.
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This month Smart Card Talk spoke with Bruce Davis, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, for Digimarc . Bruce Davis has served as Digimarc's Chief Executive Officer since December 1997. He also has been chairman of the Board of Directors since May 2002, a director since December 1997, and Digimarc's President from December 1997 through May 2001. Prior to joining Digimarc, Mr. Davis served as president of Titan Broadband Communications, a provider of information technology and satellite communications systems and services. Prior to that, Mr. Davis served as president of Prevue Networks, Inc., a supplier of electronic program guides and program promotion services for the cable and satellite television markets. Prior to that, Mr. Davis founded and served as president of TV Guide On Screen (which later merged with Prevue Networks, Inc. and is now part of Gemstar TV Guide International), a joint venture of News Corporation and TCI (now part of Comcast) which supplied electronic program guides and navigational software for the cable television market. Mr. Davis received a B.S. in accounting and psychology and an M.A. in criminal justice from the State University of New York at Albany, and a J.D. from Columbia University. 
