The state of New York could revoke the driver’s licenses of hundreds of thousands of residents, The New York Times reported recently.

The state is matching up Social Security numbers used for driver’s licenses with information on file with the federal government. If the name and numbers do not match federal records, the person’s license could be revoked, the newspaper said.

The state has set up an online system to help people verify their numbers at http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/ssnVerify/default.html. Only those people who received letters from the state need to verify their Social Security numbers.

In a statement, the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles said the system is part of a series of steps aimed at cutting back the risk of such documents being used by terrorists.

"Terrorists and common criminals alike have used these types of documents to conceal their identities, to blend into the rest of the population and to commit crimes against law-abiding citizens of our state and our country," Raymond P. Martinez, commissioner of the New York State DMV, said. "Our front line staff are trained in identifying fraudulent documents and our fraud investigators are prepared to pursue these cases aggressively to ensure the integrity of the identification documents that we produce."

A number of immigrant groups have expressed concerns that the system will simply take driver’s licenses away from illegal immigrants, The Times reported. And while Martinez said that was not the goal, he acknowledged to The Times that immigrants who were not able to prove that they have legal authorization to be in the country would likely lose their licenses due to the program by the end of the year.