By Anna Delaney (annamadeline) • March 21, 2022
“Sound Off” is a new video series that explores one topical question, in depth, with information security and privacy leaders.
In the coming weeks, US President Joe Biden will announce a new executive order that builds on steps taken in 2021 to prevent and detect identity theft involving public benefits. On this week’s “Sound Off,” Jeremy Grant, the coordinator of the Better Identity Coalition, discusses the challenges ahead for the government in combating criminal and identity fraud.
Grants says we need to shift “away from knowledge-based approaches to identity proofing to ones that are more focused on things like possession.” He offers as an example the new mobile driver’s license apps that are starting to roll out in some states in the US. “This would set a much higher bar that would make it much more difficult for criminals and other adversaries to actually steal money from these sorts of (benefit) programs,” he says.
As part of efforts to fulfil the federal initiative, the Department of Justice has announced that it will appoint a chief prosecutor to lead teams of specialized prosecutors and agents focusing on major targets of pandemic fraud.
Grant says that one of the biggest challenges ahead for the new chief prosecutor is obtaining adequate resources: “The worst position you can find yourself in is where you’ve got a title and don’t have the ability to go get things done.”https://www.careersinfosecurity.com
