A new bill would establish a grant program that helps states modernize their identity systems, develop digital IDs, and protect against deepfake attacks.
A bipartisan House bill would create Treasury Department grant program aimed at helping states adopt mobile drivers licenses and other digital identity credentials that align with National Institute of Standards and Technology digital ID guidelines.
The “Stop Identity Fraud and Identity Theft Act” would establish an “identity fraud prevention innovation grant program.” States would be able to use the grants to modernize their identity systems, develop digital ID’s, protect against deepfake attacks, and defend against digital identity fraud.
The bill was introduced by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and is co-sponsored by Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.)
“Identity fraud is one of the fastest growing threats facing American families, our financial system, and the integrity of government programs,” Sessions said in a statement. “Criminal organizations and hostile nation-states are exploiting outdated identity systems, costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and putting Americans’ personal information at risk
Foster said the bill would “provide states with the support they need to safeguard Americans’ personal information and strengthen consumers’ ability to protect themselves against identity theft and fraud.”
The lawmakers noted that the bill doesn’t mandate digital ID’s or eliminate physical credentials.
States would also be required to spend at least 10% grant funding on providing services “designed to assist individuals with obtaining any identity credentials or identity verification services that are required to obtain a digital driver’s license or other digital identity credential.”
The bill comes amid persistent concerns about public benefits fraud. Digital ID’s are viewed as one way of stemming fraud that leverages stolen identities. But the federal government’s digital identity requirements have largely been disconnected from state governments, where ID’s are issued, as well as tech advances in private industry.
Last year, NIST finalized a new set of digital identity guidelines. They establish varying levels of standards for identity proofing, authentication, and federation technologies, including requirements for security and privacy.
Jeremy Grant, coordinator of the Better Identity Coalition, said the new bill sets a “high bar” to help drive digital ID interoperability nationwide through the NIST standards.
“States are still free to go do something else, but if you want federal investment to support some of this, you’re going to have to follow what NIST has put forward,” Grant said during an event hosted by the coalition and other groups last week. “That was a good way from our perspective to try and head off rogue implementations or whatnot, at least ones that would be supported by federal funding.”
At least 20 states and Puerto Rico have begun issuing mobile drivers licenses in recent years. The “mDLs” are digitized versions of physical licenses and are typically stored on a user’s smartphone. The Transportation Security Administration also accepts mDLs or other forms of digital ID at more than 250 TSA checkpoints across the country.
Meanwhile, an ongoing project at NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence is focused on accelerating the adoption of standards and best practices for mDL’s.
The first use case under the project is focused on demonstrating the use of an mDL or digital ID to establish an online financial account.
The next use case is focused on government services. Ryan Galluzzo, digital identity program lead at NIST, said the agency is working with Login.gov and the state of Georgia on the use case.
“We’ve shown we can do it in the context of financial services, but how can we potentially use this in various different government contexts, as well,” Galluzzo said at last week’s event.
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