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Today's Topics:
1. 'Login.gov is key to US administration anti-fraud efforts'
(Stephen Loosley)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2025 14:40:01 +1030
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] 'Login.gov is key to US administration anti-fraud
efforts'
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Login.gov is key to administration anti-fraud efforts, GSA official says
By Natalie Alms, Staff Reporter, Nextgov/FCW March 4, 2025
https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2025/03/logingov-key-administration-anti-fraud-efforts-gsa-official-says/403470/
[Photo caption: Early in the administration, some in Trump?s orbit had called
for the single-sign on and identity proofing service to be gutted.]
The Trump administration appears to be backing Login.gov ? the government?s
single sign-on and identity proofing service ? as a ?critical part? of its
planned efforts against fraud.
The director of GSA?s Technology Transformation Services, Tesla alum Thomas
Shedd, told agencies using Login.gov that the program won?t be affected by the
recent elimination of GSA?s tech consultancy 18F, which helped build identity
service during the Obama administration.
?I can assure you that Login.gov?s work carries forward as a critical part of
Government-wide efforts to promote efficiency and fight fraud,? Shedd wrote in
a Monday email obtained by Nextgov/FCW. ?To that end we are working to
accelerate Login?s roadmap. More to come on that soon.?
GSA recently started letting agencies ask for facial recognition via Login.gov.
Any further changes to the service could affect millions of Americans, as over
100 million people have Login.gov accounts already to access government
services, such as online Social Security accounts or unemployment insurance
applications. Over 50 federal and state agencies use the service.
Some government agencies offer other options as well, or rely completely on
outside vendors ? such as the private company ID.me ? to verify that someone is
who they claim to be before giving them access to sensitive information or
accounts.
The roadmap referenced by Shedd includes plans to accept mobile drivers
licenses and bolster Login.gov?s anti-fraud capabilities. Shedd himself has
already told GSA employees that he wants to use Login.gov to root out fraud,
with one employee calling his plans to use data about individuals to do so
illegal, as 404 has reported.
How exactly Login.gov may intersect with the work of billionaire Elon Musk and
the Department of Government Efficiency ? and their attention to fraud ?
remains to be seen.
Identity theft has indeed fueled fraud in some government programs. The
Government Accountability Office estimated in September that up to $135 billion
in unemployment insurance alone went to bad actors during the pandemic, for
example, with identity fraud being a ?major contributor to UI fraud.?
But in the current administration, many of Trump and Musk?s claims of fraud
have been debunked, as have assertions of savings. The administration has also
fired many inspectors general, who could have been natural allies in a fight
against fraud, given their mandate to prevent and find waste, fraud and abuse
in government.
?Fraud has always served as a powerful political trope, one that provides a
rationale for cutting government,? two political scientists wrote recently of
Trump 2.0. ?The strategy is simple. Claim there?s fraud, dismantle the
institutions that prevent fraud, and then capture public dollars for yourself.?
Big picture, cybersecurity and digital identity experts have bemoaned the lack
of attention or unified strategy on digital identity for years. The Biden
administration considered pushing agencies to adopt Login.gov, but ultimately
didn?t include the service in a last-minute cybersecurity executive order after
stalling on a potential identity-focused executive order for years.
A controversial offering
Shedd?s assurances on the future of Login.gov come even as some have called for
the new administration to cut the service.
Emily Murphy ? Trump?s head of GSA during his first term, who came under fire
for taking weeks to declare former president Biden the winner of the 2020
election ? wrote an opinion piece in January arguing that ?GSA should sunset
Login.gov,? calling it ?redundant, over-budget and behind schedule.?
Murphy was in charge of GSA for most of the time period referenced in a
bombshell GSA watchdog report released in 2023 that found the agency had been
misleading its customers about Login.gov?s offerings for years ? a report
Murphy herself cited as among the reasons Login.gov should be cut. It detailed
how GSA officials had misled partner agencies about the identity proofing
standards met by Login.gov in particular, billing them over $10 million in the
process.
The standard in question, set by the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, is being updated but is currently most easily met using a biometric
? hence the recent addition of facial recognition to Login.gov.
Murphy also called for GSA to cut ?most? of TTS in her opinion piece.
Related articles: GSA testing finds variations in the accuracy of digital ID
verification tech
Former congressman Matt Gaetz, Trump?s original pick for attorney general, has
also targeted Login.gov, calling it ?the perfect example of everything wrong
with government? in a series of posts on X at the beginning of the year. Gaetz
has been the subject of allegations of illicit drug use and sexual relations
with underage women.
The online identity verification space has been the center of heavy lobbying in
recent years, as NOTUS has reported, with different players jockeying to get
the business of states and federal agencies.
Among those debates is the question of who should even be verifying the
identities of Americans trying to interact with the government online ? private
companies or the government. That spilled into the mainstream in 2022 when the
IRS received bipartisan backlash for its use of private company ID.me on its
website.
Login.gov is run by GSA, but does use contractors, including LexisNexis.
--
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