RMIT welcomes Victoria's adoption of digital licences but flags security concerns

A positive reaction to the use of digital licences as part of a trial in Ballarat has been an encouraging sign, according to top university RMIT.

The pilot program began in the middle of 2023, following rollouts of digital licences in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia – showing that Australians are willing to adopt the technology, despite privacy and "information honeypot" concerns.

According to Dr Arathi Arakala, Lecturer in Mathematics and a member of RMIT’s Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation, "The take-up demonstrates that Victorians are eager to adopt the new ID technology where their licence is digitally accessible via the Victorian Government’s dedicated phone apps.

“Victims of identity theft and fraud have reported stolen of lost driver licence cards as the most common identity document used by perpetrators."

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The digital licence will be integrated into the Victorian Government's myVicRoads and Victoria Service apps, although further testing will be required before any rollout in 2024.

"We hope common attack points will be studied and fixed before the full rollout this year.

“If the phone is lost or stolen a user can get the licence revoked and a new licence number can be applied for. These new credentials will reflect in real time on the Victorian Licensing Registry database." Dr Arakala added.

The concerns about the ability to fake digital licences can be addressed with the inclusion of a timed QR code that refreshes every couple of minutes, similar to VPN tokens or other two-factor authentication methods. The South Australian digital licence uses a similar barcode system, along with a function that displays the current date over the licence photo when the user shakes their device.

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Dr Arkala does detail some other limitations or concerns with a digital licence as well.

"Some of the challenges of having everything on a mobile phone extends to the digital ID too. For example, low battery, severely damaged phone screens and poor network connection could hamper the use of the digital licence. In those situations, a user can always fall back on the physical licence.

“The digital driver’s licence is a great step toward a more secure and convenient licence system."