Credit: N. Hanacek, B. Hayes/NIST
GAITHERSBURG, Md. — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has launched a collaborative project to adapt NIST’s digital identity guidelines to support public benefits programs, such as those designed to help beneficiaries pay for food, housing, medical and other basic living expenses. Through a cooperative research and development agreement, NIST will work with the Digital Benefits Network (DBN) at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation and the nonprofit Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) to develop resources that help providers balance security, privacy, equity and usability.
“To improve benefits delivery to the U.S. public, it is vital that agencies balance access and security,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director Laurie E. Locascio. “Different populations have different needs, barriers and circumstances that must be considered, and this collaboration will bring together a diverse set of communities to do just that.”
In response to heightened fraud and related cybersecurity threats during the COVID-19 pandemic, some benefits-administering agencies began to integrate new safeguards such as individual digital accounts and identity verification, also known as identity proofing, into online applications. However, the use of certain approaches, like those reliant upon facial recognition or data brokers, has raised questions about privacy and data security, due process issues, and potential biases in systems that disproportionately impact communities of color and marginalized groups. Simultaneously, adoption of more effective, evidence-based methods of identity verification has lagged, despite ..
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