SEATTLE - With all the talk about identity theft the past few days, one security expert says it's high time that we use digital technology to defeat the bad guys.

Social Security numbers were never designed to be your personal identifier. It just sort of happened. Now, they ask you for your number when you order cable TV.

Here's the problem: If an ID thief gets that number, he can become you -- access your records and financial accounts.

You only get one Social Security number. There's no taking it back and it's virtually impossible to get a new one.

Howard Schmidt is nationally-respected security expert who lives in the Seattle-area. He thinks it's time to use digital technology to prove who we are.

"What we need to do is look at digital identity for the future," Schmidt said. "With ID management which basically gives us the ability to control it ourselves instead of having it at the whim of other people."

The military already uses ID cards with digital chips embedded in them. If the card is lost or stolen, the computer database can be changed to shut down the card.

It's similar to the key cards so many of us use to get into buildings and ride secure elevators. That card has a specific digital ID that can be shutdown at any time.

Another device, called a Cryptocard, is used by the folks who run the KOMO Web site. To log into certain areas, the staff members have a personal code that they only know, and they have to combine that number with a password generated by a little digital gadget. That makes stealing the device or stealing the personal password useless. You need both to prove who you are.

Howard Schmidt, says a digital ID will let you limit how long someone can have your personal identifier before it self destructs.

"If I give it to you to purchase a car for example, that it expires an hour after the car is done, you can validate who I am, but you can't keep my information for a long period of time," Schmidt said.

Schmidt says it may take 5 to 10 years until digital identification is in widespread use. But he's been talking to governments around the world and he says there is now a great deal of interest in using technology to fight identity thieves.

Yes, even this digital technology can be compromised, Schmidt says with a digital system, it's a lot easier to repair the damage.

For instance, if an ID thief gets your Social Security number, there is virtually nothing you can do.

But if he steals your digital ID card, that card can be turned off and you can be given a new one with a new number. The old card won't do the bad guys any good.