Brief: Washington Is Finally Jumping On The Government ID Bandwagon

Although identity federation and trusted identity providers (IdPs) such as Experian, ID.me, PayPal, and Verizon Universal Identity Services (UIS) have been around for a long time, they have yet to gain significant traction with consumers and citizens. For five years, Canada has been using SecureKey to let citizens bring their own trusted IdP-issued identity to authenticate with key government sites. With the impending launch of Connect.gov, the United States is hoping to replicate that success with the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it is even hoping to allow citizens to perform high-risk transactions such as applying for benefits and paying fees. This report highlights the main features of "bring-your-own-identity-provider" architecture that S&R pros need to implement in the areas of architecture, privacy, split of liabilities, and strong authentication.