Federal, State Agency Assistance Programs Faced with Synthetic Identity Fraud

If a person loses their state identity card or their driving license, they – depending on their state regulations – will have to go to the office of the Secretary of State or the Department of Motor Vehicles and wait in line with some significant documentary evidence. It is their identity to replace it.

That is up to Kovid-19.

As states closed their government buildings in the early stages of the coronavirus epidemic, government agencies were forced to calculate how unprepared their old systems were to provide digitalized services to shelter the public there in a lifetime epidemic. At the same time, the public and private sectors face cyber attacks that leave valuable, sensitive information in the hands of threatening actors.

So, how do government agencies prevent fraud by managing public benefits and protect valuable personal data? That question was the content of the “Future of Identity Fraud Roundtable”, an online panel hosted by Socure and Venable on June 17. During the discussion, experts highlighted the unique challenges that government agencies face when it comes to public identity verification, government assistance, and prevention of synthetic identity fraud, where cybercriminals combine genuine information with fabricated information to create a fake identity.

Arizona State CIO JR Sloan said during the panel, “I think almost every state and government entity wants to provide a good quality digital experience to our electorate.” “At the epidemic stage … it was a public safety issue. We need to be able to provide a no-touch experience.”

Estimates of how much fraud occurred during the coronavirus epidemic changed. A Academic paper published by researchers at the University of Texas – Austin The value of the potentially misreported debt was found to be 64.2 billion. A Higher estimates from the Small Business Administration (SBA) At least .1 78.1 billion has probably been identified as fraudulent loans and grants. Excluding coronavirus fraud case data brought by the judiciary, the Secret Service said About বিল 100 billion has been stolen From coronavirus relief programs for businesses and individuals, it has reached a conclusion using the US Department of Labor and SBA’s own case and data.

Over the past two years, federal government agencies’ public benefit programs have been attacked by cybercriminals from other countries, as well as domestic cybercriminals using synthetic identities to block benefits to the American public, said Jordan Burris, senior director of product marketing strategies.

Linda Miller, principal of Grant Thornton’s advisory services and former deputy executive director of the United States, said cybercriminals are sharing information and digital guides about using stolen personal information to apply for government benefits. Epidemic Response Accountability CommitteePanel time.

“The game has completely changed. And it won’t change,” Miller said during the panel. “They are only going to become more sophisticated and more efficient as they continue to challenge the government to deal with this problem effectively.”

Barriers to going digital

Unlike the private sector, government agencies have to serve the public, which is often forced to reach out to people who do not have an address or bank account, Miller said. Verifying the identities of these vulnerable groups may prove more difficult, as the government has fewer data points available for cross-checking, he explained.

While government agencies can use some basic indicators, such as a foreign IP address, to screen fraudsters, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for agencies to manage a population of people who are difficult to authenticate, he said.

“How are we going to solve this identity proofing problem in a way that is going to ensure equity in a variety of groups that need government benefits, not going to create another ton of problems for the components and going to sell to them. Citizens as they try to access their benefits. Is doing, ”Miller said. “What we need to think about is to use data in a smart way, and to meet people where they are in terms of how much data a person has.”

Although sharing data between government agencies allows them to easily verify the identities of beneficiaries, one of the challenges facing government agencies is the rules of what data they can share with each other and what they can’t, Buris said. Congress may need to pass federal law to allow sharing of data between different government agencies – including social security numbers, a taxpayer identification number, alien registration numbers, or passport numbers – to share some of the information.

Recent advances in data policy

Although regulations currently prohibit government agencies from sharing certain personal information, there are proposals to change agency procedures that may allow them to test secure data sharing, said Suzette Kent, CEO of Kent Advisory Services and former US CIO, Said panel time. Such proposals, for example, could allow the military to recover after a disaster by sharing experienced or retirement information, Kent said.

“We need to see what information companies are authorized to collect, and how they can use it and make sure those things are appropriate. [for] The purpose of the kind of things we’re doing, Kent said.

A recent example of biometric authentication is the IRS’s efforts to apply face recognition technology to verify the identities of people opening new online accounts. The company made the announcement on February 8 It abandoned his plan
To use a third party facial recognition company for new account authentication.

Remote biometric identity proofing was accompanied by privacy, access and equity issues, which were met with immediate response, Miller said. As government agencies try to use this technology, they must also comply with the “highest level of identity approval” of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. But it has become clear that many federal and state government agencies are not ready to address the myriad complexities of NIST compliance and other issues that arise, he said.

Regardless of remote authentication tools, government agencies need to maintain public confidence and be transparent about how they are using biometric technology, Buris said.

Failure to maintain public confidence “reduces the ability of innovation to deal with what we see from a fraudulent perspective,” Buris said. “I would say that any vendor working in this space, again, needs to be transparent with practice, so that we don’t lose that.”