Oz ID card database racked by identity fraud claims | The Register:

There were 790 security breaches at government agency Centrepoint involving 600 staff. Staff were found to have inappropriately accessed databases containing citizens' information. The databases are part of a massive federal Government smart card project which will link medical, welfare, tax and other personal data on Australia's 17m citizens.

Hard to believe, isn't it?

Now, imagine a federal government database of (potentially) smart card data including all of your driving records, automobile ownership, medical restrictions, and maybe profession. Only, this would would contain information on nearly 300 million citizens. What's more, security wouldn't be centrally managed, there would be more than 50 security teams in each state, each with their own AAA schemes, and each with full access to the contents of the other states' databases.

Do you think some employees might take some risk to get at that information?

Do you think some creative attackers might?

That may be what the Real ID Act of 2005 is bringing us.