US industry groups want more from the White House on digital ID

Businesses and digital ID advocates are again petitioning the Biden Administration to use its power to drive down rates of identity fraud in the United States.

Their concern is that the White House will get too comfortable with sending out its annual cybersecurity strategy. More than support and education are needed to staunch fraud that is sapping individual consumers and the national economy both.

Ten advocacy groups signed the letter. Among them are the Better Identity Coalition, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Bankers Association, Electronic Transactions Association and the Software & Information Industry Association.

There are ambitious digital ID campaigns, but they are in Asia, the EU and Africa.

They are calling on President Biden to move more forcefully on three fronts.

First, the coalition wants a task force created that is capable of accelerating the availability of tools to make a satisfying impact on ID-centered digital crime.

They want a “‘timeboxed’ effort to coordinate activities among authoritative issues of identity credentials” resulting in useful, complete and easy-to-access resources for a switch from physical ID to digital.

They also want more prioritization at the National Institute of Standards and Technology on identity- and attribute-validation services. NIST officials have been visibly active in this area, but more focus, more standards and more best practices.

The group’s last point might be its weakest, though.

Officials should document how money spent on digital ID infrastructure can make government cheaper to operate. It is weak because while it is accepted as gospel by much of American industry, swaths of the political landscape energetically reject unambiguous facts.

Any argument that ends in, “you have to believe me” is an argument already lost.

Article Topics

Better Identity Coalition  |  cybersecurity  |  digital ID infrastructure  |  digital identity  |  United States