DHS: Remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at University of Southern California National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of...

.... today's speech, which really focuses on the issue of protection, deals with one particular, I would argue, special challenge that we face on the eve of the 21st Century and it's a challenge that lies at the core of a great deal of what we do inprotecting homeland security. It also lies at the core of a great deal of what we do protecting our financial security, our personal security, and our reputational security, and what I'm referring to is how we manage and protect our personal identities because I'm going to submit to you that in the 21st Century, the most important asset that we have to protect as individuals and as part of our nation is the control of our identity, who we are, how we identify ourselves, whether other people arepermitted to masquerade and pretend to be us, and thereby damage our livelihood, damage our assets, damage our reputation, damage our standing in our community. ....