Ep. 43 Intelligent Automation for the Federal Government

January 17, 2023

Years ago, one would enter a federal agency with a badge and go to work. The server was down the hall and much of the security was based on the classic Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card.

The past five years has seen that model turned upside down. During COVID, 80% of federal employees started to work remotely. The move to the cloud has accelerated the need for a more flexible, yet authoritative, personal identification.

The hybrid cloud is starting to look like a maze of interlocking dependencies that make identification difficult.

For example, if a malicious actor manages to steal credentials, are there ways to develop an authentication that goes deeper than basic information? What are the limitations to Multi Factor Authentication?

"ABBYY is one of the very few vendors out there that are offering a complete solution of document centric identity proofing, and identity affirmation."

Brian Hettinger, ABBYY Tweet

Remote authentication goes beyond workers doing a daily job. Federal organizations like FEMA must be able to respond to remote needs. If a citizen is in a flood, they need to prove their identification quickly and completely to get assistance. Fraud and abuse are replete in the COVID financial assistance. Many times, this theft is a result of identity that is poorly managed.

This is an interview with a company called ABBYY; a company that has a strong reputation in the commercial community for innovation with identity verification.

During the podcast Brian Hettinger discusses how ABBYY applies a concept called “identity proofing” to identity verification. This process aims to assemble information from a person that can be correlated with other data to establish identity.

The White House is mandating federal agencies to improve customer service. Rather than delays through a standard identification process, agencies should consider new ways to make a transition from defense in dept to identification in depth. That alone would be an increase in customer service by eliminating deceit and reducing cost to remediate stolen credentials.

If you enjoyed this article, you may want to listen to Ep. 36, Federal IT and the Verizon Data Breach Report