Ever wondered about government's role in online identification and how it could expand to help our digital economy function better and safer? Or how government data quality directly impacts risk assessment?
In this episode of Making Data Better, we tackle where US and Australian governments stand on protecting our digital IDs and personal credentials.
Join us as Jeremy Grant, Managing Director of Technology Business Strategy at Venable LLP, brings his insights on security technology strategy, policy, finance, and more to Making Data Better. Jeremy speaks to his decades-long experience with US federal and state government initiatives. And to the work of his organization, the Better Identity Coalition (check out its policy papers for federal and state-level policymakers!)
Government issues the credentials we rely on to prove who we are. Regulating how those credentials may be protected to enjoy expanded usage is both necessary and fraught with complications. Tech regulation has a history of being well behind technology's evolution.
That said, it is coherent policy and political direction that is needed. Disparate agencies may fully understand the potential of the assets they manage but without strategic focus at the highest level, the challenge of digital ID will remain. And our exposure to fraudsters, synthetic identities, and nation-state attacks will continue.
This is no small matter. FINCEN, the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, recently announced their analysis of bank-filed suspicious activity reports. They found that $212 billion of transactions were tied to compromised identity. The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the US Congress, estimated between $100 and $135 billion losses in public benefits fraud during the pandemic.
This is real money, ending up in the hands of organized criminals and adversarial nation-states.
So, take a listen to this episode with Jeremy Grant and Lockstep's Steve Wilson and George Peabody. There's work to be done.